Comments on: London’s Burning

By: Dhruva Murugasu

Dhruva Murugasu — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 21:38:58 +0000

I think our views are very similar then. I can assure you though, that in the UK, these "left-wing loyalist" you worry about are not being given much attention anywhere. The bigger problem in the UK is that too many sensible people on the left who are trying to understand the situation are being shut out by the suggestion they are condoning the violence, being mixed up with the "left-wing loyalist" you talk about. I'm glad that you are not trying to do that and I definitely see where you are coming from :)

By: Dhruva Murugasu

Dhruva Murugasu — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 20:46:19 +0000

At the end of the day, if we have a street protest with 100,000 people taking the streets, the police force is going to be stretched similarly. And rightly or wrongly, some people are going to be concerned that irresponsible parties might take advantage of this to cause chaos and loot as well. We just have to have faith that Malaysian society is not as “broken” as British society but it is a risk we run nevertheless. Just because it has not happened in recent times does not mean it cannot happen. Whether this is sufficient justification for banning rallies or not is another debate that I’d rather not get into, but the London riots I think, do provide some argument against street rallies. Not because the riots were a result of street rallies, but because they show us how easily things can go wrong when the police force is stretched. P.S. Sorry for splitting up the comments like this, there's a word limit apparently

By: Dhruva Murugasu

Dhruva Murugasu — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 20:45:44 +0000

Also, comparing peaceful rallies of Malaysian society to these riots does not make one an ignorant punk. I would agree the behavior of Malaysians at our street demonstrations has been a million times better than that of the London rioters (which was thoroughly disgusting) and we should not equate a protestor/demonstrator with a rioter. That is being unfair in my opinion. However, if you look deeper, there can be similarities. The reason why so many teenagers and kids dared to riot and loot was the fact that it was quite clear at some point that the police force was stretched and could not cope with them. They took advantage and caused chaos for their own benefit.

By: Dhruva Murugasu

Dhruva Murugasu — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 20:45:04 +0000

On a separate note, if your left-wing loyalist is only referring to those who are actually defending these people’s actions, then you cannot say there is a growing trend for that as I can assure you this is not true. I think you’ll find just about everyone in the UK agrees with most of your criticism of the rioters, but that shouldn’t stop us for trying to explain why they did it and how we can prevent it from ever happening again everywhere in the world.

By: Dhruva Murugasu

Dhruva Murugasu — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 20:44:44 +0000

When you listen to some of the people who deal with these youth on a day-to-day basis, you better understand the kind of life they live in. However, like you very correctly point out, this does not and never will “legitimize their murderers’ barbaric actions as valid dissent mechanisms?” The rioting and looting were wrong, and they were in no way intended to send a message about society but they do reflect deeper problems within society which some people are trying to understand and address. The problem is, they too quickly get dismissed as left-wing and accused of defending the rioters when all they are trying to do is understand the deeper lying problems in society. If this is not understood and addressed, the problem is bound to crop up in one form or another in the future.

By: Dhruva Murugasu

Dhruva Murugasu — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 20:44:08 +0000

In fact, I see two groups of observers in this situation. The first are the people who quite quickly dismiss these riots as “mindless criminality” and think the solution is to punish these people severely and give the police more power. Then, there is the more left-wing group who try to understand why the riots happened in the first place and why these people took to the streets and went looting. All of them I’ve heard strongly criticize the actions of the rioters but also feel the need to understand what made them do this. The social exclusion theory is one of the most commonly mentioned, as well as the breakdown of the family institutions (not all these kids have parents who are at home looking after them) and a lack of moral compass. The austerity measures have played a role too, some of the youth clubs these people went to and who provided them support have been forced to close due to funding cuts apparently.

By: Dhruva Murugasu

Dhruva Murugasu — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 20:43:13 +0000

Dear Beatnik, I must say I enjoyed reading your piece, its something that’s been on my mind quite a bit too. However, there are a few things I feel the need to clarify. First of all, I agree with you that “one certainly can’t frame the chain of cause-and-effects in such simplistic terms”. We should not try to explain these riots with just one reason and you have that spot on. However, I do also feel the need to defend the “left-wing loyalists” you refer to. I’ve been following the British TV and news closely since these riots as I’m currently in London. The people I think you see as “left-wing loyalists” (I may be wrong here) who present the arguments you discuss are in most cases not trying to defend the actions of the rioters. If you have watched the wide range of people being interviewed, almost nobody tries to defend the actions of the rioters (they strongly criticize their actions in fact) except the occasional teenager who looked like they’d just come out of the riot themselves.