Following the protest march organised by the Crime Prevention Group on Sunday, April 28, against the rising crime and spate of ram raids and aggravated robberies in the community, Indian Weekender looks at what we learned from the protest march.
- Protest was well attended
It will not be an exaggeration to assert that the protest march was well attended by over five to six hundred shopkeepers and small businessmen who arrived from distant locations in Auckland on a Sunday afternoon, along with their family members and relatives.
In most cases, these family members of local businesses owners are the ones who are at the frontline facing aggravated assaults while manning their respective businesses. Given the fact that women and elderly in most of the ethnic communities are usually shy of coming out in public, chose to participate in this public march signifies the importance of this issue among the communities.
- A good mix of ethnic representation
Apart from some reasonable numbers in the protest, the other notable observation was the good mix of ethnic participation from other communities notable among them Chinese, Korean, Maori, and Pacific Islanders, apart from few Pakehas, which challenge the notion currently prevailing in the mainstream media that this issue is limited to a small part of the Indian community.
The numbers and the mood prevailing in the public protest march suggest otherwise.
- Well supported by prominent faces in the community
Unlike many instances in the past, where issues of wider interest in the community have failed to enlist an unequivocal support from community leaders solely on the pretext of individual and political preferences of those in the lead, there was some success this time.
Many prominent community members have rallied together for this protest march overtly, despite their individual political preferences.
Notable community leaders present on the occasion were Jeet Suchdev of Bharatiya Samaj, Suresh Ramji and Veer Khar, the current and the previous President of the Indian Association of New Zealand, Prithipal Basra, Narender Singla, Aman Manchanda, the newly elected President of the Global Indianz (a National Party outfit of global Indians in New Zealand).
- Despite claims to keep it apolitical, Labour Party has more visibility
Although, Sunny Kaushal, the lead organiser of the crime prevention group made some bold announcements that no political party or Member of Parliament was formally or particularly invited for the protest. Yet, the labour party and its associated unions had a visible presence in the march.
Jenny Salesa, the Labour MP for Manukau East where the protest march was held participated in the protest and made a brief speech at the end of the march.
Speaking to the Indian Weekender Ms Salesa acknowledged that rising crime was a serious concern for the communities and her Party [Labour] was keeping a close eye on the situation.
However, she chose to deflect cautiously Indian Weekender’s direct probing if her Party would support the crime prevention group’s call for a change in the law to deal with the rising incidences of youth crimes, apparently suggesting that there are some ‘sensitivities within the Labour Party’ around this issue.
- No Kiwi-Indian MPs bothered to attend the protest march
One key unmistakable observation of this protest march was the absence of any current Kiwi-Indian MPs and this fact does not require any further explanation.
The irony was that almost all the mainstream media reporting have described this protest march as something concerning local businesses within the Indian community.
ISSUE
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