IT was May 14, 1969, when a group of ‘UM freshies’ or new First College students were marched to Universiti Hospital to donate blood needed in large quantities. But, we did not know why so much blood was needed, and neither did we actually need to know.
There was full radio and TV silence so we did not know an Emergency had been declared. We were only told there was a dire need for “blood donors.” So, we marched there, donated blood, and coined the term, “paksa-rela” to mean, “How we were involuntarily volunteered but still uninformed!”
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