I
was there, and proudly so in spite of all the lies that the MSM is
spewing out to the public. So
far the government's argument is that the Bersih 3.0 people
breached the barrier and thus the PDRM responded with tear gas and
water canon (and a whole lot of beating).
The
1st question to be asked is: Which barrier was breached? Seems
like it was the outer perimeter barrier which is not included in
the court order. The PDRM had 'illegally' blocked the roads
outside the perimeter of Dataran Merdeka not covered by the court
order. And one of this "illegal" barriers was breached. If this is
true then did the people break the court order.
The
2nd question: Since only ONE barrier was broken through, why did
the police fire tear gas and water canons on all fronts, including
the rest of the fronts where the "duduk-bantah" were really
peaceful and law abiding? Was firing on all fronts part of a
preconceived plan?
The
3rd question: Why did the police suddenly desert that front which
the crowds broke through, before the crowds did what they did? Was
that action on purpose? Earlier in Brickfields, they had given us
the impression that they will allow us through their cordon
without retaliation. They had blocked the entire road leading from
Brickfields to Central Market. But when we march on and faced off
with them, they just opened up the cordon and allowed us through
peacefully. We thanked them, and there was happiness that this
time the PDRM is different, that they will not hurt their own
people; people they are supposed to protect. So when they withdrew
from the cordon near Dataran Merdeka were they were purposely
"inviting" the crowds (having given that impression earlier) in to
give them an excuse to attack?
The
4th question: If there was a breach of one front by some people,
wouldn't the police be competent enough to just arrest the few who
had broken through, and if necessary to fire tear gas there only?
Then they can restore the barrier there. It seems all so
deliberate that the PDRM was planning to lure the crowd into making
this mistake and to give them an excuse.
The
5th questions: If they were not intending to use excessive
violence, why were the police name tags all removed? What is there
to hide? Why did they trap the crowd instead of dispersing them?
Why did they stop the LRT which the people can use to disperse?
Why did they block all the dispersal routes that the crowd will
use to disperse? Why did they fire into the crowd and from both
sides? Was it to create a stampede so that easily hundreds could
have been killed by their own fellow Bersih supporters in the
ensuring panic, and then blame the deaths on Bersih? (It was so
easy under the circumstances for this to have occurred if not for
the relative calm, discipline and tolerance of the crowd: a great
credit to them). If they had acted professionally, why confiscate
the cameras, and beat up the journalists recording the
event?
The
6th question: Why did the authorities jam all the phones within
the vicinity knowing that the crowd needed to communicate through
this. When Ambiga and Anwar declared the end to the
rally at
2.30pm (which
I read about the day after the rally), most people did not know
about it because the communications were down. Was it a deliberate
act to keep the crowd unaware and disorganized?
Only at
5.00pm on
that day did I see the sms declaring the rally over (but I had
decided that it was over by 4.00pm in
keeping with the original Bersih plan). So many people were just
waiting till the earlier declared time of 4.00pm to
disperse since we did not get any other instructions. It was just
another 1 hour or less, and the crowd would have happily
dispersed at
4.00pm even
without instructions.
I
will not even talk about Agent Saboteurs that were possibly
planted. Look at some of the video clips of the Bersih people
being beaten by the police. Amongst those beating the helpless,
unarmed, unresisting, non-retaliating arrested Bersih supporters
were police in uniform and those in plain clothes (who had earlier
mingled with the crowd, probably to instigate them).
The
most important thing now is that we should not be distracted by
this governments evil intention of using the "small", instigated
breach of the cordon as justification for using excessive and
disproportionate violence on innocent rakyat who had just come out
that day to demand for Free and Fair Elections (and for some, to
Stop the Lynas project). And all that finger pointing as to who is
at fault for the violence (which by now is obvious to people who
still have some objectivity left) is the governments devious plan
to distract us from the central issue of a clean and fair
elections.
Let
us forgive the PDRM rank and file who acted the way they did. They
were starved because most of them have not eaten since breakfast
(a hungry man is an angry man), tired, and were told that one of
their compatriots have been killed by the "rioters" (actually a
policeman dies of heart attack away from the scene of the rally,
and someone up there used this to create anger amongst the police
rank and file), and they were under orders from the upper echelons
of power (who were not at the front doing the dirty job of
injuring our own people.)
Let
us focus on the issue: That over 100,000 people stood up
courageously on 428 (indeed something alien to our culture, but
the question that begs to be answered is why so many ordinary
people are doing something to alien to themselves?) to tell the
government that they are tired of the cheating and corruption
during elections. They are telling the government clearly and
bravely that they DEMAND their right to have a Free and Fair
Election. Is this so unreasonable?
If
the government is sincere and has nothing to hide about conducting
a free and fair election, why did they not even allow a Royal
Commission of Inquiry (RCI) for the Sabah renown illegal voters,
let alone a RCI on the EC and its process. What is there to hide?
And why should we allow ourselves to be cheated of our democratic
right for a free and fair election?
I
am a member of the FAILED GENERATION: a generation of people who
have failed the younger generation of this beloved nation by
ALLOWING (by our indifference and apathy) the situation to come to
this. This happened over the years, and we were aware of what the
government was doing to destroy a system of Free and fair
elections. But we chose to be silent (grumbling and complaining
amongst ourselves, and nothing beyond that). The young people are
standing up to take back their rights that we have allowed
ourselves to be forfeited. They are the ones who will inherit this
nation from us. What are we leaving them, and for their children,
and grand children? Can we continue to stand idly by and allow
them to work towards regaining that fundamental right? We have
failed them in the past, let us not fail them again now when there
is a chance that we can make this right for Malaysia.
Bersih
4.0 will come, even though none of us hope for it, if this
government proceed to dissolve Parliament and call for the 13th GE
without meaningful electoral reforms, the most important of which
is to clean up the electoral rolls. Open the rolls to an
independent audit group. Then there are the issues of the postal
voters, and the poll booth observers. This can be done before the
next GE if this government is sincere about winning fairly. But is
it their intention to have a Free and Fair election? I think
Bersih 4.0 is inevitable, and nothing can stop it, if this
government continues to avoid the issue and continues this blame
game. The people are not easily hoodwinked and deceived anymore.
They are not afraid anymore to stand up for their rights. This is
a new culture pervading the society.
Those
who have missed out the earlier Bersih rallies, I want you to
think about this: Why are most of the people who have come for the
Bersih Rally so keen to come back again if there is need for
another? I don't need to explain, because I can't even begin. Its
a strange feeling,of patriotism, a sense of unity and national
pride, a revelation of what racial and religious harmony is all
about and intrinsic sense of purpose that make these people want
to come back to stand up for a noble cause.
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