In the aftermath, reports swirl of police brutality

Twenty hours after the Bersih march reached its apogee at several points of access to Merdeka Stadium, the focal point of the march, reports are emerging of the police's indiscriminate use of force against the marchers.

The most striking of these reports is footage from the TV news network Al Jazeerahwhich showed the men in blue kicking a marcher on the head after he had fallen to the ground.

PAS deputy president Mohamed Sabu was also a casualty of the force's strong-arm methods when he fell off a motor-cycle on which he was riding pillion.

Sabu claimed the incident occurred when a police car rammed into the vehicle on which he was riding pillion and was headed to the KLCC.

Sabu sustained an injury to his leg which left him limping which, however, did not deter him from attending the funeral this morning of PKR activist Badaruddin Ahmad, 58, who died in a melee at KL Sentral following the firing of tear gas at a big group of marchers who had assembled there yesterday.

A crowd of some 2,000 attended Badaruddin's funeral, among who were Bersih chair, Ambiga Sreenevasan, and Pakatan Rakyat stalwarts including former Perak menteri besar Mohd. Nizar Jamaluddin of Pas, and PKR's Tian Chua and Dr Tan Kee Kwong.

Tan, a former Gerakan MP and BN deputy minister and chairman of the PKR disciplinary board, was at Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman, near the Mara Building, at the height of the march.

“The police were needlessly forceful in the face of a crowd that was not violent in any way,” said Dr Tan in comments to Malaysiakini after attending Badaruddin's funeral.

Tan claimed that the police fired tear gas horizontally rather than above the crowd and this, he said, was the cause of injuries to PAS MP for Shah Alam Khalid Samad, PKR supremo Anwar Ibrahim and to a bodyguard of Anwar whose cheek was shattered by the impact of a tear gas canister.

“Both Anwar and the bodyguard were injured because of this method of firing the tear gas and Khalid Samad sustained a wound to his head which required six stitches,” said Tan who is a medical doctor.

He claimed that he spoke to Sabu when he met the limping Pas leader at Badaruddin's funeral.

“Mat Sabu told me that he would be filing a case against the police for causing willful hurt to him,” said Tan.

The PKR leader also said Mohd Nizar Jamaluddin, whom he met at the Badaruddin's funeral, told him that the tear gas used to disperse the crowd at KL Sentral was stronger than the type used by police in Perak to disperse demonstrators in Ipoh in 2009 when there were incidents of unrest following the ouster of the Pakatan state government that year.

“Nizar is a veteran of several demonstrations and he said the type of tear gas used yesterday was of a stronger concoction,” said Tan.

The PKR leader denounced the government for failing to give a permit for the Bersih gathering to be held at the Merdeka Stadium after what he claimed was a “clear signal from the King that Bersih should switch from holding a street march to having a rally in a stadium to which Bersih was amenable.”

“The government of Prime Minister Najib Razak must be held responsible for its insolent attitude towards the whole affair,” asserted Tan.

By Terence Netto. Malaysiakini