About 25 people from the Bay Area shuttled to Los Angeles recently to participate in a rally for Malaysian Indian rights, an elusive cause in a nation where native Malays are born Muslim by law and minority groups avow ethnic favoritism.
Although the gathering was modest, some attendees seemed moved by their virgin foray into the world of political dissent.
"We have been used to the Indians being the timid group in Malaysia," said first-time demonstrator Lila Beckford of Hercules. "It was inspiring to see the bunch of people who showed up."
"You can't find anybody more of a conservative person by profession," she said. "I'm an accountant. I enjoyed myself a lot. It gave you a warm feeling."
Beckford is a member of the Bay Area Malaysian Indians, an online social group that played a key role in recruiting fresh faces for the weekend protest.
She knows firsthand the discrimination she left behind when she came to study accounting at the University of California, Berkeley, and obtain her M.B.A. at Cal State Hayward.
Now a U.S. citizen, she doubts she could have had the same success through a Malaysian education, because the university system is based on affirmative action for ethnic Malays.
"We never knew what freedom was like," she said. "We have to work harder than anybody else to get into good schools. When I came here, I realized how marginalized I was there."
"This country gave me a chance my country did not," Beckford said. "I'm trying to turn my anger into a passion to help."
The Saturday rally at the Malaysian consulate came a day after a slightly larger rally in Kuala Lumpur, the nation's capital, where rose-bearing protesters were met by riot police with tear gas and water cannons.
Mihir Meghani of Fremont, part of an awareness group, the Hindu American Foundation, called the Malay government's reaction"brutal." He attended the California rally in solidarity with local Malaysian Indians.
"It's really an apartheid regime in the way that they handle non-Muslim Malays," he said, noting that ethnic Chinese also claim unequal treatment there.
About 200 people attended the Kuala Lumpur protest, a far cry from the 10,000 who rallied there in November for ethnic Indian rights. Indians overall make up 8 percent of the population.
This time, Meghani's group said, the government blocked roads into the capital to prevent ethnic Indians from entering, racially profiling bus passengers and plucking them off.
The foundation said it received reports that 5,000 Hindus were detained.
Officially, about 125 people were detained at the protest, according to news reports, although fewer than 10 were kept in custody.
Among those arrested was a leader of the Hindu Rights Action Force. Five other leaders still are in jail after arrests at the November rally.
Local organizers said more than 50 people attended Saturday's rally in Los Angeles, most of whom had never picketed before.
Malini Kumar of Fremont, who spearheaded the local organizing effort, was impressed that people from various backgrounds, including American Indians, came to show support.
"We were so proud of ourselves, and to be in America, where we are able to practice our rights of peaceful assembly and speaking out," she said. "If we were in Malaysia, we would all be detained and jailed."
The budding activist said her confederates now will discuss a possible divestment campaign targeting businesses that make components in Malaysia.
Kumar said the exiled president of the Hindu Rights Action Force may attend a rally in April, possibly at the San Jose office of the Malaysian Industrial Development Authority, which facilitates Silicon Valley deals.
Among the high-tech firms based in Fremont that have operations in Malaysia are: AER Worldwide, Smart Modular Technologies, Unigen and WaferGen.
Beckford's colleagues at her Larkspur company joked that they'd break her out of jail if she got arrested at the recent protest, yet she seemed undeterred that her obscure cause and out-of-character activism led to a hokey punch line.
"Everybody asks me, 'What do you hope to achieve? You're not going to make a dent,'" she said. "If every one person I spoke to at the rally knows a little bit more about this problem ... we are a small group, but I think we can make a difference."
Translating a Malay proverb, she added: "'Little by little you can build a hill.' I'm ready to become a total activist."
Consulate officials did not return phone calls for comment.
By Todd R. Brown in Los Angeles
PEOPLE'S POWER
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