When I think of the word of this theme round, the first thing that comes to mind is organised political movements accompanied by the image of group protests and large, bold signs. To me, social movements are simply a symptom of a gangrenous limb that has been festering, unnoticed, on the organism that is our society. And these movements are often what provide the necessary impetus for long-lasting, often positive change, especially for oppressed and disenfranchised communities. In this article, I would like to focus on four social movements, particularly in Southern Asia, that are less well-known and have been created as a response to issues that impact the lives and freedoms of thousands of individuals.
THE ‘CHIPKO’ MOVEMENT
India’s forests, especially in the Himalayan region, singlehandedly support the livelihoods of many rural communities. Under British colonial rule, laws were introduced to allow the government to manage the area’s natural resources, which gave the state the right to control the use of entire regions. This free reign and the government’s desire to monetise their resources by whatever means necessary had an overwhelmingly detrimental impact on communities that relied on forests for their survival.
This led to the Chipko Movement in 1973, which was a nonviolent protest movement led by women; likely the first in Indian history. The word ‘Chipko’ in Hindi refers to sticking or hugging, and the movement got its name from peaceful protesters attaching themselves to the trees in their villages in an effort to protect their local forests, with the message “Our bodies before our trees”.
But Chipko wasn’t always an eco-centric conservationist movement of local communities; over the period of a decade, it transitioned from a struggle to manage local resources for survival, to a national campaign influenced gradually by a growing global understanding of environmental concerns.
And as demonstrations began to spread across India and even to other countries, the increasing pressure on the government motivated them to (eventually) adopt policies that were more sensitive to the needs of entire villages - tens of thousands of men, women and children. The protests in the region achieved a major victory in 1980, with a 15-year ban on tree felling in the Himalayan forests implemented by then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Youth-led ‘Chipko’ demonstrations still take place in many rural parts of India.
JAKARTA PROTESTS
In 2019, police in Indonesia attacked protesters with tear gas and water cannons as thousands of students began demonstrations against a new law, which proposed a change to the country’s criminal code. The revised criminal code meant that penalties against extramarital sex would be implemented, which would have a disproportionately large impact on the LGBTQ+ community - essentially the elimination of a civil right for thousands of individuals, which was why it was condemned as highly intrusive and an attack on personal freedoms
The law also provided a restricted access to contraception for teenagers, a four-year jail term for abortions in the absence of a medical emergency or rape, and a prison term for ‘black magic’.
The protests, which happened largely on the roads of Jakarta, rapidly grew and turned violent, with self-immolation and the burning of police posts and public facilities such as bus stops. The police and military personnel responded with the same intensity, resulting in the deaths of eight protesters and left six hundred individuals injured. A large majority of all protesters were local high school and university students, unaffiliated with any activist groups or political parties.
Unsurprisingly, the growing violence and fragmentation meant that the amendment was pushed back by Indonesia’s newly reelected president, Joko Widodo, in an attempt to curb the overwhelming outpour of opposition from the Indonesian population. Mr. Widodo made a public announcement, stating that “After examining input from various groups who objected to some of the substance of the criminal bill draft … there were still materials that needed further study”.
THE ‘BLACK FLAG’ MOVEMENT
The ‘Black Flag’ movement in Malaysia began in the middle of the Coronavirus lockdowns, in which low and middle income families were encouraged by independent activist groups such as the Sekretariat Solidariti Rakyat (SSR) to raise black flags and wear black clothes and masks to express their discontentment with the newly appointed Prime Minister’s approach to mitigating the effects of the pandemic. The movement started out on social media, due to the restrictions in place and the inability of protesters to perform demonstrations.
In the two month lockdown period, youth also took to the streets of Kuala Lumpur with their black outfits, masks, and flags in protest, chanting one word - ‘Lawan’ - ‘fight’ in Malay. The government’s handling of the pandemic was said to be ‘paralysing the economy’ and ‘destroying their democracy’, ignoring the rapidly rising unemployment rate and income slashes that crippled young people across the country in low-income communities, who were now no longer able to continue their education as well. Instead, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin was accused of focusing too much on political posturing and trying to maintain his position by declaring a ‘state of emergency’, thus halting all parliamentary activity.
The symbol of the black flag also represented the mental wellbeing of students and young workers across the country - with steady student loans, but a rapidly falling access to online education, as well as a lack of acknowledgement of the psychological impacts of isolation. This became a large cause for concern for many local Malaysian NGOs, especially with laws in place that made attempting to end one’s life illegal, leading to an endless cycle of distress for many individuals.
THE SUNFLOWER MOVEMENT
The Sunflower movement, named after the flowers given to protesters as a symbol of hope, was a student-led protest in response to the Taiwanese government signing the ‘Cross-Strait Service Trade Agreement’ that would have the ability to lift many of the barriers to trade between the two states, which was passed by the governing party in 2014 - the Chinese Nationalist Party.
Beginning in March and ending in April, hundreds of students (and thousands outside, which made it all the more difficult to remove the protesters) broke into the Taiwan Legislative Yuan, the equivalent of the US Capitol Building, to oppose building connections with the People’s Republic of China. Even prior to the proposal of this agreement, China’s growing influence on Taiwan and its politics was felt by its citizens - with the slow erosion of press and academic freedom and individual political rights. This is why the government’s willingness to make trade deals with China was perceived as sacrificing the freedom of their citizens for the profit of their large corporations, who would likely be the only actors benefiting from greater Chinese influence.
And while the government refused to postpone or amend the free trade agreement, the opportunity that the movement gave the youth and activist groups has made way for unprecedented involvement of youth in national politics - joining existing ‘pro-democratic’ parties, establishing their own, and running for public office. In addition, the movement has led to a force of non-traditional politics with new NGOs and youth organisations, and the discourse is increasingly open to liberal reform.
The Sunflower movement activists have since won policy victories in areas such as nuclear power, public high school curriculums, and the campaign for legalizing same-sex marriage.
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