UK Riots: Lessons to be learned; Role for US crime guru?

Tweet

Lessons to be learned

Comment by LOURDES CHARLES

The perceived police inaction during the riots in Britain has shone a light on our own cops' response to protests here.

ANY Malaysian watching the riots in London and other cities in England must have asked what were the British police doing? Why did they restrain themselves? So much so, that people around the globe were wondering how the hooligans were allowed to carry out such criminal acts of looting, robbery and assault.

In some scenes, the police were seen retreating and reports estimate that no fewer than 100 policemen were injured and at least five police dogs hurt by these thugs.

The authorities there did practically nothing, allowing the yobs and rioters to set fire to shops,  supermarkets and other business outlets, while others looted, assaulted and robbed passers-by.

No water cannons were used nor were there mass arrests made during the incident.

Only after four days did the police there act by deploying 16,000 personnel to patrol the streets in their bid to maintain law and order. They have arrested more than 1,000 people but not before three people were killed with losses amounting to millions of pounds.

These young criminals may have issues with unemployment and a sense of hopelessness in England where inflation, slow growth and budget cuts have hurt them but that is no excuse for their acts of violence.

Only the most diehard bleeding liberals would want to blame the system for the criminal acts of these opportunists.



Their targets, as we saw, were ironically the neighbourhood shops people they knew and small businesses that have provided jobs to the people.

To smash, loot and burn these shops is hard to comprehend.

One looter was even quoted as saying: “It's us versus them, the police and the system.”

“They call it looting and criminality. It's not that. There's a real hatred towards the system,” he said.

The British riots have generated a debate with the social media here comparing the police's handling of the looting and arson there and the Malaysian police's action over the Bersih 2.0 protest, where water cannons and tear-gas were used.

More than 1,000 people were arrested here amid allegations of police brutality. The roadblocks set up ahead of the rally also led to public complaints.

Some said it was unfair to link the British riots with Bersih 2.0, as there was no damage to public property in Kuala Lumpur. To make comparisons, the argument goes, would not be fair.

Police operations in any part of the world would always be subject to scrutiny, as civil society becomes a crucial part of a growing democracy.

From discussions on British TV, the sentiment is that the police did not want to be too robust in confronting the rioters for fear of being criticised, as has happened in the past.

Many were worried that their superiors would not back them if there was a public backlash. No policeman would want to risk losing his position and pension over such controversies. They have the power and authority but feared exercising them.

Civil lawsuits against the police by aggrieved parties, including burglars, are a norm there.

Even now London police are bracing themselves for another possible suit by some 5,000 demonstrators who took part during the G20 protests in April 2009 in the now infamous “kettling” case.

The demonstrators may sue Scotland Yard for false imprisonment as judges found that the mass detention (preventing them from nearing the summit area) for five hours was an unlawful deprivation of liberty under Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Human rights are so stringent there that even a suspected burglar who was chased by a police dog and bitten is said to be suing the police. Never mind that the stolen loot was found on him and he was charged with burglary.

He is expected to be compensated with about 50,000 (RM245,000) for his injuries.

Some of us here would cry out that it is a case of excessive democracy and abuse of human rights. Demonstrators have their rights to protest but those who suffer losses have their rights, too. So it came as no surprise that the public in Britain is outraged at the response to the rioters.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and London mayor Boris Johnson were filmed on television being scolded by the public for the slow action against the yobs, the British term for hooligans.

Most of us must have been outraged to see how the young criminals taunt the policemen while openly breaking into shops. We would have expected immediate arrests, not days after the looting.

There is also a lesson which the British policemen as well as the PDRM can learn from this episode. Social media was used extensively in the riots. Young people knew in advance where people could gather to make trouble via Twitter and Blackberry Messenger but the police were unaware of it.

They were so clueless that many wondered why the police did not show up in potentially explosive areas.

There seems to be a shift in public opinion since the recent anarchy following a series of seemingly peaceful protests which turned violent such as the G20 in April 2009 as well as the Nov 10, 2010 student fees protest where open clashes took place in the streets of central London. Now they want their police to be more assertive in carrying out their duties.

Even Prime Minister David Cameron has now told the police that they should adopt a more robust approach and has given them the green light to use water cannons and rubber bullets to quell the rioters.

The British incident serves as a lesson for us here. Preventive measures are good and though we sometimes criticise what is termed as highhanded action by the police, at least the cops here are doing a decent job in keeping law and order.

Britain's top cop slams UK role for US crime guru

LONDON (AP) - Tensions between Britain's government and police leaders flared Saturday over Prime Minister David Cameron's recruitment of a veteran American police commander to advise him on how to combat gangs and prevent a repeat of the past week's riots.

The criticism, led by Association of Chief Police Officers leader Sir Hugh Orde, underscored deep tensions between police and Cameron's coalition government over who was most to blame for the failure to stop the four-day rioting that raged in parts of London and other English cities until Wednesday.

Cameron criticized police tactics as too timid and announced he would seek policy guidance from William Bratton, former commander of police forces in Boston, New York and Los Angeles. British police have branded the move misguided and an insult to their professionalism.

"I am not sure I want to learn about gangs from an area of America that has 400 of them," Orde said of Los Angeles, which the 63-year-old Bratton oversaw until 2009.

"It seems to me, if you've got 400 gangs, then you're not being very effective. If you look at the style of policing in the states, and their levels of violence, they are fundamentally different from here," said Orde, a former commander of Northern Ireland's police and deputy commander of London's Metropolitan Police. Orde made his comments to the Independent on Sunday newspaper.

The riots row overshadowed a day of peace on England's streets and continued progress in processing more than 2,100 riot suspects arrested so far, mostly in London, in unprecedented round-the-clock court sessions.

In England's second-largest city of Birmingham, prosecutors charged two males with the murder of three men in a hit-and-run attack Wednesday, the deadliest event during the past week's urban mayhem.

Both males - identified as Joshua Donald, 26, and a 17-year-old whose name was withheld because of his juvenile status - were being arraigned Sunday at Birmingham Magistrates Court on three counts each of murder.

The breakthrough by a team of 70 detectives came less than four days after Haroon Jahan, 20, and brothers Shazad Ali, 30, and Abdul Musavir, 31, were mortally wounded when a car struck them at high speed. The trio had been part of a larger group standing guard in front of a row of Pakistani-owned shops.

The killings threatened to ignite clashes between the area's South Asian and black gangs, but the father of Haroon Jahan made a series of impressively composed public statements in the hours after his son's death pleading for forgiveness, racial harmony and no retaliation.

Hours before Saturday's murder charges were announced, the father, Tariq Jahan, told journalists at a Birmingham news conference he had received thousands of letters from well-wishers worldwide.

"I would like to thank the community, especially the young people, for listening to what I have to say and staying calm," said Jahan, 46, a delivery driver for an electronics chain.

Police in London were continuing to interrogate several suspects linked to the riots' two other killings: of a 26-year-old man shot to death in a car after a high-speed chase involving a rival group of men, and a 68-year-old loner who was beaten to death after arguing with rioters and trying to extinguish a fire they had set.

England's forces of law and order have been on the defensive over their slow initial response to riots that rapidly spread Aug. 6 from the north London district of Tottenham to several London flashpoints and, eventually, to Birmingham, Manchester, Nottingham and other cities with high gang activity.

But police leaders mounted a series of critical interviews Saturday underscoring their view that Cameron was jumping the gun by seeking foreign advice at a time when his debt-hit government was pressing ahead with plans to cut police budgets by 20 percent.

Leaders of the police unions in London and the northwest city of Manchester - which dealt relatively harshly with rioters and quelled trouble there in one night - stressed that Cameron needed to listen to their expertise first, rather than seek to apply lessons from America's better-armed, more aggressive approach to policing.

"America polices by force. We don't want to do that in this country," said Paul Deller of the Metropolitan Police Federation, which represents more than 30,000 officers in the British capital.

Deller, a 25-year Met officer, accused the government of not being serious about following Bratton's recipe for reducing crime.

"When Mr. Bratton was in New York and Los Angeles, the first thing he did was to increase the number of police on the street, whereas we've got a government that wants to do exactly the opposite," he said, warning that planned budget cuts would mean 2,000 officers lose their jobs in London and thousands more nationwide.

Ian Hanson, chairman of the federation's Manchester branch, said local officers knew better how to police their own communities than "someone who lives 5,000 miles away."

Results of an opinion poll published Sunday suggested stronger public support for the police than for Cameron's approach to the crisis.

The poll, commissioned jointly by British newspapers Sunday Mirror and the Independent on Sunday, found that 61 percent thought Cameron and his Cabinet colleagues were too slow to end their foreign summer holidays following last weekend's outbreak of violence. Cameron returned to London from his break in Italy's Tuscany region Tuesday, after almost all of the London rioting had passed.

And strong majorities backed greater support and resources for the police, calling for planned budget cuts to be put on hold. About 65 percent said British troops should be used to reinforce police in event of future riots, while even heavier majorities said police should be permitted to use water cannon and plastic bullets against rioters and impose curfews on unruly communities. All of those measures have been used to control street violence in the British territory of Northern Ireland but never in Britain itself.

The survey of 2,008 people, conducted Tuesday and Wednesday, had an error margin of 3 percentage points.

Related posts:

UK riots: resembles more of the Third World, bring up questions about society, moral decay! Anger still burns
Anarchy in the UK - London Riots Sparked by Police Beating, Poverty, Ethnic differences...

Anarchy in UK - London Riots: Malaysian student mugged...

UK riots: resembles more of the Third World, bring up questions about society, moral decay! Anger still burns

Tweet

London’s Blitz today

BEHIND THE HEADLINES WITH BUNN NAGARA

As Britain resembles more of the Third World, what awaits developing Third World countries after development?

THE young men looting from the shops were not in Haiti, at least not anymore. The others coordinating more trouble for the government with their BlackBerrys were not in Egypt’s Tahrir Square either.



They were in London, capital of the once-global empire on which the sun never set. How did a great city that once ruled much of the world gravitate to the depths of a battle-strewn Iraq or a lawless Somalia?

It was not the first time that wanton violence had erupted in a city that sees itself as a leader of the “civilised world” after it had sent countless “civilising missions” around the globe to bring the “natives” up to speed on living a fuller and more meaningful life.

There was rioting two years ago when London hosted the G20 summit, and another eruption in the poorer parts of South London in the early 1980s, among others. But this time seemed the most serious: even a middle-class suburb in northwest London like Ealing had not been spared, with fires reminiscent of the wartime Blitz.

After street violence spread through the city from Camden, Clapham and Hackney to Lewisham, Peckham and Woolwich, it fanned out to other major cities across the country. Evidently the natives in Britain have been restless, and it could be that they felt excluded from living a fuller and more meaningful life.

For many of the youths on the rampage, living a better life meant having that new pair of sports shoes, the latest cellphone or the big flatscreen TV in the shop window – without having to pay for it. And thus the looting.

The apparently untraceable BlackBerry messaging system among fellow users also came in handy when avoiding police surveillance. Thus the “struggle” for the freedom to have what they’ve always wanted, by “liberating” snazzy items from the shelves of retail outlets.

Troublemakers seemed to have been encouraged by the fact that both the prime minister and the deputy prime minister had been abroad on holiday at the same time. But the urgency of attending to the troubles has meant that nobody has asked why have a deputy at all if both were going to be away simultaneously.

Several outcomes have been painful in their predictability. Politicians rushing home to address the problem have criticised the police handling of the riots, the police have rejected the criticism while claiming to have some of “the best officers in the world”, and liberal NGOs are concerned that the offenders might be punished too harshly.

Two issues now stand out as requiring some soul-searching before making the tough decisions necessary.

One concerns how the mainly youthful offenders are to be treated. The need for quick justice in the courts to deal with the many cases has caused some quarters to be anxious about the quality of the judgments and sentencing.

Another concerns the style of policing, particularly when initial responses from the force seemed inadequate. But efforts to alter the Metropolitan Police’s standard operating procedures have met with resistance.

Two related challenges for Downing Street are its insistence on going through with its 20% or £2bil (RM9.8bil) cuts to the police budget over the next four years, and the plan to engage an American policing consultant to advise on changes.

Both issues have further alienated the force from the government of Prime Minister David Cameron, who still insists on proceeding with them. The opposition Labour Party and the general public are largely on the side of the police.

A Guardian/ICM poll across Britain during the week found that 44% disapproved of Cameron’s performance, against 30% who were satisfied with it. Some 45% found the police performed well against 27% who felt otherwise.

A 56% majority of the public also felt that the police were already under-resourced before any cuts, against 41% who felt the force had what it needed to maintain law and order.

As for the reasons for the rioting, 45% cited the criminality of rioters, 28% saw their lack of respect for society, 8% believed it was the lack of jobs for youths, 5% said it was the police shooting death of a young man in Tottenham, 4% blamed the government, 2% blamed the police, 2% blamed the economy and only 1% felt it was racial sentiment.

However, it need not mean that racism is insignificant. Among the few deaths so far, three had been of Asian Muslims in Birmingham by a hit-and-run driver, although public attention has focused on the single white victim in Tottenham.

If racism is a bigger factor now than before, the problems before Britain are set to grow exponentially. In much of the earlier rioting, race was not a factor despite appearances as disillusioned individuals joined in against the established order.

As I made my way to the centre of rioting in Brixton some three decades ago, I asked a local for the precise location. “Oh, you mean the frontline!” he said, with a sense of dread and eyebrows raised.

I found the spot and it never seemed as terrifying as what Britons generally have had to experience in 2011. Things have obviously deteriorated, and might still worsen further.

Yet no other country can be so smug or self-righteous as to say it is immune to the kind of problems Britain has lately experienced. Neither Thailand nor any Arab or other country is insulated from such social disruptions.

Britain as pioneer has been proud of being “the mother of democracies” and the father of capitalism as the original “workshop of the world”.

If its troubles are a sign of things to come, other rapidly developing countries may want to consider some contingency plans within easy reach.

London riots bring up questions about society

MIND MATTERS By RAJA ZARITH IDRIS

I AM one of the many thousands of Malaysians who studied in England in the 1970s and early 1980s. Since then, I have visited England, specifically London, three times – for an alumni weekend in 2009 and for other invitations I received twice last year, first in October, when I visited the Oxford Centre of Islamic Studies and gave a talk to Malaysian students, and again in December, after receiving an invitation to discuss Islam and programmes carried out for the Muslim community there.

I also met up with some students from Johor. So, at a Malaysian restaurant I sat, surrounded by these young, bright students studying at different colleges in London, some doing engineering, others medicine. Initially, there was some awkwardness both on my part and theirs – until I asked them about the Tube (London Underground) and taxi fares. I told them I used to take the Tube and the bus and that I could only afford to take a taxi if I had not used up the monthly allowance my father gave me. Talking about public transport fares then and now seemed to break the ice. I didn’t seem so alien after all.

When news came in about the London riots, I thought about our Malaysian students who are studying there. I wondered about the safety of this particular group of Johor students whom I had met.

We’ve all seen footage of the riots in London and in other British cities. Like in the United States, many people in Britain and other countries in Europe are facing unemployment, less spending power and falling property values. Some British journalists were of the opinion that moral decay and the yawning gap between the rich and the poor were two of the many reasons which caused the riots.

Moral decay

Peter Oborne, the Daily Telegraph’s chief political commentator, in his article “The moral decay of our society is as bad at the top as the bottom” wrote: “Indeed, I believe that the criminality in our streets cannot be dissociated from the moral disintegration in the highest ranks of modern British society. The last two decades have seen a terrifying decline in standards among the British governing elite. It has become acceptable for our politicians to lie and to cheat. An almost universal culture of selfishness and greed has grown up.”

I emailed my English boarding school friends to ask if they and their families were all right. One of them had seen the video of Mohd Asyraf Haziq Rossli bleeding on a street before getting robbed. She wrote back: “I saw the clip of the youth being robbed and it made me feel sick and very angry that people could behave in such an inhumane way. The fact it was a visitor to the UK makes it much worse and I hope he recovers well and does not think the majority of the UK is like this. I feel parenting has a great deal to do with this and there has been a loss of respect for authority, elders and community.”

Another friend, a doctor with the National Health Service, wrote: “London was quieter last night. The police advised us to shut the practice early and send the staff home which we did. The high streets look like battle zones with shops boarded up or shuttered.

Divided we stand: Riot police facing a mob in Hackney, north London, on Monday. — AFP

 

“It is really unbelievable with the fires and the looting making it feel a bit like civil war! We have a disenfranchised, disconnected and discontented generation who we need to re-engage.”

We Malaysians, however, shouldn’t be so smug and think that our country is far superior than Britain. We, too, have a “discontented generation”, with many young people who are unemployed or who choose to remain unemployed. And we have gangsters too.

We have a huge number of single mothers who are left by their husbands to fend for themselves and their children. We have unwed mothers. We have far too many cases of incest. We have drug users and drug suppliers. We have animal trafficking. We have heard and read about child abuse.

At the same time, it could not have escaped our attention that there is a simmering tension between the different racial communities. Religious authorities make conflicting media statements which leave most of us bewildered rather than reassured. Who should we believe? And why can’t they sit down and argue the issues at hand?

We have again and again failed at agreeing to disagree. Since it is Ramadan, and even before the London riots began, I had started to think again about our society and our social problems. Being hungry does that to you. We become introspective, we question our values and our priorities.

One of the things I realised – and one which has become more and more blatant over the years – is that we place more value on our outward appearances. Thus, designer handbags, shoes and clothes emblazoned with logos are what we strive to possess because owning them means that our husbands are successful or that we ourselves are successful in our own careers.

We have become superficial and we definitely defy the saying of not judging books by their covers. Many affluent middle-aged women have taut faces, no sagging jawlines, and flawless skin. And yes, I say this with much envy because I do not have great skin; I have more chins than I would like and my eyebags are reaching the proportions of the must-have Birkin handbags.

Similar concerns

We do, therefore, have similar concerns with the already-developed countries: we have made it a priority to have material things rather than striving to be good, decent people.

It has become unfashionable to talk about moral values, integrity, spirituality and all other things which we may or may not possess but which cannot be seen or touched physically. We struggle with all things intangible. We prefer to have possessions which we can see, touch and hold.

As Hisham Hellyer said during his lecture titled “Islamisation in the 21st Century: Islamic Renewals”: “For despite the wailing and moaning about the ‘evil West’ and its corrupting influences that one so often finds within the Muslim world, the Muslim world at large is rushing to become Western as much as humanly possible. And it is not rushing to imbibe those laudable aspects of Western civilisation that do continue to exist through the grace of God, despite the many problems that exist in the West ... The Muslim world sees the technological advancements of the West, and rushes to be like the West ... forgetting that actually, the mark of progress according to the Islamic worldview is an increase of taqwa, not material wealth.”

So, do we, in Malaysia, also have that “universal culture of selfishness and greed” which Oborne wrote about when describing society in Britain? I would like to think that we don’t but a part of me knows that we do. I don’t see much effort at giving back to society or of wanting to learn about those who live wretched lives. It is hard for me to ignore that despite our rush to be a developed country we still have many social issues which need to be addressed, if not solved. I cannot look the other way and ignore the poor who live in deplorable conditions in some parts of Johor Baru. Our cities have grown but together with this growth is the increase of the urban poor. If they are filled with anger or frustration, it is because we have not made enough efforts to listen to them, or to help them.

One of the things I saw, and which I will never forget, was of men and women queuing up to get their wang ihsan after the floods of 2006. They stood patiently in the grounds of a mosque as a government officer wrote down their names and addresses.

A couple of years ago, I was flipping through one of those glossy society magazines and I saw a designer handbag that cost RM90,000. Would I have asked my husband to buy it for me? No, because the sight of those flood victims standing in line to receive just RM500 makes such a purchase sinful. How many families would the cost of that handbag help feed? Thinking about this, I would like to understand more about taqwa, and what it truly means. I don’t need to know about wealth because I already live a privileged life.

For Malaysians, the London riots should not be seen as something that would never happen here or that we do not have young people who are frustrated by life’s unfairness. We should instead realise what we should do because it is our responsibility towards the young people of this country. They deserve a chance at a better life. And they shouldn’t have to be part of a riot for us to realise that.

The writer is Chancellor of UTM; Royal Fellow, School of Language Studies and Linguistics, UKM; Royal Adviser of the Malaysian Red Crescent Society, and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Chinese Studies from the University of Oxford.

Anger still burns in epicentre of UK riots

by Marc Bastian 

LONDON, August 14, 2011 (AFP) - Tottenham in north London is still smouldering with anger and frustration, one week on from the unprecedented wave of rioting, arson and looting that broke out here then swept across England.

Last Sunday residents of the multi-ethnic neighbourhood were assessing the scale of the damage after a night that saw running battles with riot police, homes and businesses reduced to cinders and stores smashed into.

But while the clean-up continues and businesses get back to normal one week on, the tension has not dissipated.

Tottenham High Road, the neighbourhood's main thoroughfare which was the scene of last Saturday's explosion of violence, remained a crime scene for a week, taped off by the police as they gathered evidence.

Saturday should have seen the area streaming with football supporters for Tottenham Hotspur's match against Everton as the English Premier League season kicked off, but the game was postponed for safety reasons.

"We're closed since last Saturday," a Turkish restaurant owner said as he finally reopened for business, a week on.

"People never demonstrate here to protest. Everybody's unhappy, frustrated. Economy, racism. And suddenly it all explodes," he said.

The trigger for last Saturday's riot, which then sparked a wave of arson, looting and disorder across London and then to cities beyond, was the death of Mark Duggan.

The 29-year-old was shot dead on Thursday, August 4 by armed police operating with officers from Trident, the unit of London's Metropolitan Police that deals specifically with gun-related murders in the black community.

He was stopped in a pre-planned attempted arrest.

A non-police issue handgun was recovered from the scene. The Independent Police Complaints Commission, which investigates all deaths involving officers, said there was no evidence of an exchange of shots.

Last Saturday's events began with a peaceful march to Tottenham police station on the High Road from Broadwater Farm, a 1960s public housing estate that is notorious across Britain for a deadly 1985 riot.

However, within hours, rioting broke out.

"The people wanted police to know that they're messing up," reckoned 14-year-old Dillz Shah.

His friend Jeffrey Freeman said: "The people wanted revenge for Duggan's killing.

James Cardelle added: "My dad thinks Duggan was a very good man, he knew him."

Duggan lived on Broadwater Farm, a collection of ugly-looking grey social housing blocks.

"He was a nice guy. So sad," said Mohammed Abrar, 22, from beneath a grey hood.

The October 6, 1985 Broadwater Farm riot followed riots a week before in Brixton, south London.

They were sparked by the stroke death of a black woman during a police search at her home on the Tottenham estate.

Youths rioted, attacking police with petrol bombs and bricks. Shots were fired at officers and a policeman was hacked to death by a mob in some of the worst urban rioting in Britain of the past 30 years.

Then, as now, fingers were pointed at police "lies", but also at "anger" provoked by governments past and present.

In a hairdressing salon opposite a burnt-out two-storey building, the black clientele lambast the authorities and the upper echelons of society.

"They abandon the population"; "the government has tripled the tuition fees"; "they cut the benefits"; "they evict people whose children were involved in the riots"; "these bankers have stolen our money", they say as they discuss the situation.

Perry Linton, a 50-something, is "frustrated" by a society in which "we worked hard, very hard, to get what? Things went worse".

Linton adds: "Racism is a big issue".

Christina Showunmi, a mother in her 40s, replies: "Racism? I don't want to think about it, otherwise it will affect my attitude towards other people. So I just block it out of my mind."

"True", other customers say. "We do the same".

Stella Saunders, 60, was having her nails painted blue.

"The youth are hanging around, have no jobs. If the factories were open, it would keep them busy. Everybody needs hope and an income," she said.

If not, despair is simply passed on from generation to generation.

"If you have no hope at 14, 15, how can you become a good parent?" she said.

Showunmi warned: "This will happen again and it will escalate. The government will make it happen again."

Related posts:

Anarchy in the UK - London Riots Sparked by Police Beating, Poverty, Ethnic differences...

Anarchy in UK - London Riots: Malaysian student mugged...

Anarchy in UK - London Riots: Malaysian student mugged...

Tweet

Malaysian student mugged during riots to stay in UK

Ashraf Haziq, the Malaysian accountancy student who was filmed being mugged by rioters while sitting on the ground injured, says he wants to stay in the UK to finish his studies.

Haziq, 20, from Kuala Lumpur, said he felt sorry for his attackers. He was left with a broken jaw in a now notorious attack in Barking, east London on Monday - but said he still felt 'great' about Britain

Go to http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/video/2011/aug/12/malaysian-student-mugged-riots-uk-video

British riots: Millions feel for Asyraf

By RAHIMY RAHIM rahimyr@thestar.com.my

PETALING JAYA: The scene of rioters in London assaulting and robbing Malaysian student Mohd Asyraf Haziq Rossli has touched the hearts of millions around the world after a video clip of it went viral on the Internet.

The clip has become an iconic symbol of the senseless violence in Britain, with even its Prime Minister David Cameron singling out the incident.

The video titled “London Riots-scum steal from injured boy” was ranked seventh most viewed video on YouTube this week with more than 2.9 million viewers worldwide.


Facebook fan pages were also created with “Support for student Mohd Asyraf Haziq, robbed while bleeding heavily,” given 249 likes while “Get Well Soon Asyraf Haziq,” got 990 likes until yesterday.

Mugged in London: Umno Information chief Datuk Ahmad Maslan pointing out the still images of Mohd Asyraf being robbed while the latter’s mother, father and younger brother look on yesterday. 

Jamie Cowen, a former worker of Britain-based Save the Children, has launched an Internet campaign to help Mohd Asyraf.

Based on Cowen's Twitter account, the campaign has so far raised some 4,000 (about RM19,350) with contributions still pouring in.

“Over 1,200 people have donated,” he said, adding that among the donors was a British bicycle firm pledging Mohd Asyraf a new one since his was stolen.

Among other donations were two first-class tickets by a British railway company for Mohd Asyraf to travel anywhere and free dental service from dentist Martin Nakisa in Britain.

The website “Let's Do Something Nice For Ashraf” (www.somethingniceforashraf.tumblr.com) also received thousands of supporters within hours of its launch on Wednesday.

In a video shot by his friend, Mohd Asyraf said from his bed in the Royal London Hospital that he was cycling with another student to visit a friend when a gang of about 20 headed towards him.

“I think some had knives. The youngest looked like he was of primary school age. They came in a group, they didn't attack at first. They wanted the bicycle.

“And then there was someone who put a hand in my pocket to take my phone. He pulled the bicycle and I don't know what happened. I fell and my mouth was bleeding. So, maybe I got hit,” Mohd Asyraf said in Malay.

“The people fled the scene. Others then approached me and said they wanted to help, but instead those behind me just took stuff from my backpack,” he added.

Asyraf’s parents leaving for England today

KUALA LUMPUR: The parents of the Malaysian student attacked and robbed by rioters in London will fly to England today.

Umno Information chief Datuk Ahmad Maslan said it would sponsor three flight tickets worth about RM20,000 for Mohd Asyraf Haziq Rossli’s parents and his younger brother.

“The London Umno Club will meet them at the airport and will arrange accommodation and food expenses during the stay,” he said after meeting the family at Putra World Trade Centre yesterday.

Mohd Asyraf’s mother Maznah Abu Mansoor, 47, said she was relieved that Umno had stepped forward to help.

“Before this, we were on our own, asking for help from friends and family,” said the teacher.

She added that Wisma Putra had contacted her at 5am yesterday to say that her son’s jaw corrective surgery had been successful and that he was doing well.

He left the hospital yesterday.

Maznah said she had also accepted Mohd Asyraf’s wish to continue studying there although she was shocked by the assault.

“We were stunned when we watched the YouTube video and saw him bleeding,” said Maznah, who will be in London with her husband, ex-army officer Rossli Harun, 49, and her youngest son Muhammad Fitri, eight, for at least a week.

In Kota Kinabalu, Foreign Minister Datuk Anifah Aman said Kaplan University, where Mohd Asyraf is studying, had also offered to fly his parents to London, adding that the offer was made when its officials met Malaysian officials on Wednesday.

In Kajang, Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said there were lessons to be learnt from the riots, adding that Malaysians should be grateful.

He said it was important to ensure there were no such riots due to the country’s multi-racial and multi-religious society.

“It is an issue which we should not take lightly,” Hishammuddin said, adding that it was up to the public to decide if their perception of the police, who came under fire for Bersih 2.0, had changed due to events in Britain.

Related Stories:

Anarchy in the UK - London Riots Sparked by Police Beating, Poverty, Ethnic differences...

News of the World, Murdoch hacking scandals: 'Shocked, appalled and ashamed', attacked!

Tweet

'Shocked, appalled and ashamed': quotes from Murdoch hacking hearing 

Rupert Murdoch ... the most humble day of his life. Photo: Reuters

Selected quotes from the Murdochs' appearance at the parliamentary inquiry into media phone hacking, which produced reactions ranging from table-banging, to abject apology, to staunch denial of any knowledge of wrongdoing.

- "I just want to say one sentence. This is the most humble day of my life." - Rupert Murdoch's opening remarks.

- "No." - Rupert Murdoch's remark when asked by Labour MP Jim Sheridan if he accepted that "ultimately you are responsible for this whole fiasco".



- "The people that I trusted to run it [his media empire] and then maybe the people they trusted." - Rupert Murdoch when asked who he blamed.

- "We felt ashamed at what happened. We had broken our trust with our readers." - Rupert Murdoch explains why the News of the World tabloid was shut down after 168 years.

- "We have seen no evidence of that at all and as far as we know the FBI haven't either." - Murdoch on allegations the paper hacked 9/11 victims.

- "I would like to say just how sorry I am and how sorry we are, to particularly the victims of illegal voicemail interceptions, and to their families." - James Murdoch's opening statement.

- "The News of the World is less than 1 per cent of our company. I employ 53,000 people around the world who are proud and great and ethical and distinguished people, professionals in their work. I'm spread watching and appointing people whom I trust to run those divisions." - Rupert Murdoch on his empire.

- "Endemic is a very hard, a very wide ranging word. I also have to be very careful not to prejudice the course of justice that is taking place now." - Rupert Murdoch in answer to Labour Party lawmaker Tom Watson, who asked Murdoch when he became aware that criminality was "endemic" at the News of the World.

- "I was absolutely shocked, appalled and ashamed when I heard about the Milly Dowler case only two weeks ago." - Rupert Murdoch on allegations that the News of the World hacked into the murdered teenager's phone.

"I was invited within days [of the general election in May last year] to have a cup of tea to be thanked for the support by Mr Cameron. No other conversation took place." - Rupert Murdoch revealing that he had been invited to have a cup of tea with Prime Minister David Cameron within days of the election that brought Cameron to power at the head of a coalition government.

- "There are no immediate plans for that." - James Murdoch, saying no plans were afoot for News International, the British newspaper wing of News Corp, to launch a new Sunday tabloid to replace the News of the World.

- "Because I believed her and I trusted her and I do trust her. In the event she just insisted. She was at a point of extreme anguish." - Rupert Murdoch when asked why he did not accept former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks's original offer to resign before she finally quit last Friday.

- "They caught us with dirty hands." - Rupert Murdoch on opposition within the media industry to his abandoned BSkyB bid.

- "Your wife has a very good left hook [sic]." - British Labour MP Tom Watson after protester and comedian Jonnie Marbles pelted Rupert Murdoch with foam and his wife Wendi hit back.



- "You naughty billionaire." - Jonnie Marbles after the attack.

 

Rupert Murdoch attacked during hearing  

Rupert Murdoch was attacked with what appears to be a pie during a hearing before members of Parliament. The videotape appears to show a protester heading toward Rupert Murdoch. Murdoch's wife, Wendi Deng, then lunged at the protester.

  - "As Mr Murdoch himself said, I'm afraid I cannot comment on an ongoing police investigation." - Jonnie Marbles to reporters later.

- "Once that trust was broken, we felt that that was the right decision. Of course, it wasn't the right decision for the hundreds of journalists who worked on there, had done nothing wrong, were in no way responsible. Every single one of them [the journalists] will be offered a job." - Rebekah Brooks on the decision to close the News of the World.

AFP  Newscribe : get free news in real time

Related posts:

Wendi Deng, Murdoch's Tiger wife loyalty and ambition !

The world is run by Tiger Wives, Tiger Moms