E Contrario

Mooncake is a special festival food for the season of autumn. The Mooncake Festival sometimes also known as Lantern Festival (Pesta Tanglung) in Malaysia falls on the 15th of the 8th month of Chinese lunar calendar. The actual name of the festival is called Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋节).

The exceptional aspect of Mid-Autumn Festival is that it has always been linked to struggle. The genesis of mooncake itself is the legend of uprising against tyranny. It is said that mooncake was created by a brilliant advisor of Zhu Yuan Zhang (朱元璋) as a device to call for revolt.

Inside the mooncake a slip of paper was hidden telling the people to rise up against repression. The uprising successfully overthrew the despotic regime and Zhu ascended to be the emperor.

The narrative of struggle continues until the modern age of reforms today. Through this tradition, generation after generation, people are reminded and inspired with the meaning of standing up for justice.

Reformasi movement in Malaysia reenacted the spirit of mooncake festival by organizing a lantern procession to highlight the injustices towards Anwar. On the Mid-Autumn Festival 1998, some one hundred citizens of all races, together with their children joined the march to demand the release of Anwar. Despite heavy police intimidation, all participants calmly carrying lanterns and walked from Dataran Merdeka to Central Market. On the lanterns, for the first time the translation of Reformasi was coined into Chinese “烈火莫熄” (Pinyin: Lei Fo Mo Xi).

I remember Ong Kah Teng issued a statement warning me, saying something like “if the authorities ban the mooncake festival and lanterns, Tian Chua should be held responsible.”

We are proud to have survived those troubled years. KeADILan continues to celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival with mooncake and lantern. Every year KeADILan launches its own brand of mooncake to signify the need for reforms.

This is our 2006 edition of Parti Keadilan Rakyat’s mooncake. Packed in a specially designed box are two mooncakes with different favours. The legend and message of mooncake are printed on box.

The Reformasi Mooncake is a halal product so that Malaysians of all faiths can enjoy.