Several tents remained erected at the site of the 'Kepung Demi Palestin' picket near the US embassy at Jalan Tun Razak in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday (Dec 28).
Arts practitioner Rosheen Fatima, who plans to participate in the picket until Sunday (Dec 31), says it has been an interesting experience with lots of interesting conversations on world events and making a difference.
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Arts practitioner Rosheen Fatima, who plans to participate in the picket until Sunday (Dec 31), says it has been an interesting experience with lots of interesting conversations on world events and making a difference.
WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news
SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar
LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline
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NewsTranscript
00:00 I'm here because there's a genocide happening in Palestine and the only country that can
00:09 actually stop it is the US.
00:11 They can stop it with a single phone call and they're refusing to do so and they're
00:15 holding up international law, they're holding up the UN Security Council, they're holding
00:20 up the 153 countries who are calling for a ceasefire now.
00:26 And they are essentially bullying the entire world into allowing Israel to act with impunity
00:33 and just kill innocent Palestinians.
00:35 Do you plan to stay for the whole duration?
00:40 Yes, originally I thought everyone was staying for the whole duration but then because I'm
00:44 a project basis, I work in the arts and this time is a quiet period so I do have the privilege
00:53 of staying the entire time.
00:54 Is this your first time joining such a protest?
00:58 How do you feel about it?
01:01 I protest quite a lot but never overnight.
01:04 I've never done an overnight protest before and I've actually never camped in this way
01:09 before so it's quite interesting.
01:13 It's hard to sleep so I brought earplugs so I managed to get some sleep yesterday.
01:19 Yesterday was a peaceful night.
01:21 We had a lot of families with children joining us and every single tent was occupied so that
01:26 was really good.
01:27 How do you feel your time here?
01:31 How do I feel my time here?
01:32 I brought a book in a ziplock bag in case of the rain and I have my crochet so I've
01:38 been crocheting.
01:39 But also we've been having a lot of discussions.
01:42 A lot of interesting conversations have been happening about what's going on in the world,
01:46 what's going on in Malaysia, how we can make a difference.
01:50 And there's a lot of youth.
01:51 I'm not in the youth community so I'm very proud of how our youth is really trying to
01:59 make Malaysia a better place and I hear a lot of that here every night.
02:04 Do you both go out?
02:06 Like food or your toilet?
02:08 No, we are very lucky that we have some people providing us with food and with water so we're
02:14 keeping hydrated.
02:16 I went back once to shower and charge my phone and I'm going to go back later today to shower
02:22 and charge my phone but other than that we're here holding down the fort.
02:26 We take shifts.
02:27 Do you think NGOs, a lot of NGOs are doing this for Palestine?
02:32 Do you think it has an impact?
02:34 I think that we are doing as much as we can.
02:38 I personally think that we can push more.
02:42 I think we could have gone further and demanded to be in front of the US embassy but I think
02:49 I'm more radical in that sense.
02:52 I think a lot of people were like, "Okay, we'll stay here."
02:55 And I'm like, "We should go more because we shouldn't allow them to do what they're doing."
03:01 And they're not.
03:02 If you really look into it, the US is not just involved in what is happening in Gaza
03:06 and Palestine.
03:07 So we need to really step into what is happening all over the world and show them that they
03:13 cannot do this.
03:15 Powerful countries cannot take over the global south.
03:18 They cannot drain us of our resources and they keep doing it and the whole world is
03:22 paralyzed because the US is not allowing us to make our voice heard.
03:30 They're using their veto power and it's not going to end until the whole world stands
03:36 up.
03:37 Do you hope more people will come, will join in?
03:41 I was a bit worried because of what happened when DBKL took down the tents.
03:46 A lot of people thought that that was the end and they left that night.
03:50 When we stayed, we sat on our flattened tents and we stayed.
03:55 And then last night, a lot of people came.
03:57 A lot more people came to show support.
03:59 We had a poetry reading here and there was a big crowd.
04:02 And then tonight there's Sembayang Hajat so there will be more people coming.
04:07 And then so hopefully more people find out, especially as the weekend comes closer, more
04:12 people are available to come and show support.
04:15 So hopefully that will happen.
04:17 I'm worried we'll run out of tents because I think more people will come.
04:20 [laughter]
04:21 [silence]