A Noob Demonstrator's BERSIH 2.0 Experience

When you have not even registered, you automatically give up your rights to complain. You may think that it does not involve you, but you have friends, you have family back home in Malaysia. Not everyone is as lucky as you and me who have OZ, UK, US, NZ, SG etc. permanent residencies.

By David Eu Cheng Teik

I have always been Pro-Opposition due to one simple fact: We are led by idiots; each and everyone of you is more qualified to lead the country than our current leaders. A strong and prosperous nation requires a powerful Opposition simply to keep the ruling party in check. The only exception I can think of to this rule is Singapore.

Hence, it is inevitable that I would join BERSIH 2.0. I missed the first one in 2007 because I was not as political as I am now. I was fearful for a myriad of reasons; I was afraid that I would be dismembered by keris-wielding Silat grandmasters, lose my job and possibly get arrested and beaten up in prison by HIV-addled drug addicts.

It has come to a tipping point for me, it is simply not sufficient anymore to simply ask people to register and berate all you idiots who have yet to register to vote for the coming 13th General Election. Every day I am assailed with lurid details about politicians' sex lives and the obvious corruption in our government. I am sick of being treated like I am a borderline retard by the main stream media. I am sick of being told to go back to China. I am sick of reading about virulent bastards like Ibrahim Ali who blatantly threaten the Chinese under the auspices of UMNO. It may take two more General Elections before we get rid of these fools, but eventually we will.

On Friday night, the initial word on the street was that all LRT services would be suspended on Saturday. Nevertheless, I called up RapidKL and confirmed that all trains would be operating as usual. Apparently, I wanted to get from Taman Paramount to Maluri to visit my girlfriend. I do not know anyone living in Maluri, nor do I have a girlfriend but neither was I going to tell the telephone operator that 'I nak pergi BERSIH rally, LRT ada stop kat Pasar Seni tak?'.

I head down from Taman Paramount LRT and already I see three policeman at the station. I come completely unprepared. All I had were the clothes on my back and an Ipod. No bag with water, towels, goggles, mask, salt or a change of clothes. This was just in case my bag gets checked and my lie of meeting my imaginary girlfriend in Petaling Street falls through.

At Pasar Seni, there was light police presence and I was already rehearsing my lie in case I get the standard'Datang KL buat apa?' question. I was not stopped and simply walked down towards Petaling Street. It was 11.30am at this stage. It was quiet but you could smell it in the air, something was going down.

There were very obvious groups of people who were not tourists and who were definitely not there for brekkie or to buy Triple A grade LV bags. And they were all Chinese. Everyone was waiting. I did not talk to anyone even though a half-blind man could have told that they were there for the rally.

I was paranoid about plain-clothes policemen and still worried about doing naked squats or being booted in sensitive regions by jack-booted PDRM personnel. Our men in blue apparently forgot about Petaling Street and were only at the usual demonstration hotspots like Masjid Jamek, Sogo, etc. Or perhaps they thought the Chinese would hardly want to get involved in BERSIH 2.0.

The friend I had planned to meet arrived with her mother and auntie in tow along with several other friends and lawyers at 12.15pm and we adjourned to the KFC on Jalan Sultan for lunch. I wandered around outside and crossed to the corner of Jalan Sultan and Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock. I casually mentioned to a recent acquaintance, 'How would we know when and where to gather?', 'If someone unfurls a BERSIH flag and starts gathering the people, confirmed get arrested by the plainclothes la'. About five minutes after I said that, it began.

A small cluster of Malay men coming from the direction of Jalan Silang marched past me. I later learned that these were actually the advance guard of a group of demonstrators who had escaped from the FRU at Masjid Jamek.

Suddenly, you hear a massive roar and around the bend from behind KotaRaya, you see them. A horde of Malays chanting 'BERSIH, BERSIH, Hancur BN, Hidup Rakyat', along with your standard shouts of 'Reformasi'. The Chinese gathered at Petaling Street go wild at this stage. I feel the blood rising in my head, a quickening of the heart and pride that there are many, many like-minded people in Malaysia. There were initially only several hundred of us but 15 minutes later, it seems that runners have come from everyone and those gathered around Petaling Street fill the entire stretch of Jalan Sultan.

It is a sea of demonstrators, you have the Facebook generation like me, conservative skull-cap wearing types from the hinterlands of Kelantan, aunties and uncles you would see at the market and all the major races represented. There were Sabah and Sarawak flags, banners, balloons and yellow t-shirts. Our lying PM says there were a total of 6,000 demonstrators in the whole of KL. Bullshit. There were at least 3,000 people on Jalan Sultan alone. They just kept coming.

We tried to head down along Jalan Sultan towards Jalan Hang Jebat and the Merdeka Stadium but were unable to do so due to a heavy police presence and barbed wire. We ended up turning back towards Menara Maybank on Jalan Tun Perak. It was a rallying point and I saw Tony Pua and Tan Kok Wai among several Opposition leaders in front of Menara Maybank.

You could see crowds coming from Jalan Pudu, Jalan Tun Perak and us coming from Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock. It was like someone flipped a switch. PAS was very well organised and there were traffic marshals to tell us where to gather and which direction to head in. These PAS men were excellent, better than our police at the job. Herd mentality did the rest.

We waited in front of Menara Maybank but heard from others that FRU trucks were bearing down on us from higher up on Jalan Tun Perak. Everyone had a phone, Twitter was going nuts and we were getting constant updates from around KL. By this time, my friend's mom and auntie had gone back home and it was just me and two other friends. Luckily, they had left because there is no way they could have escaped where we ended up later. In addition, we had been separated from the lawyers and other friends.

The three of us started walking down Jalan Pudu and wanted to ascend a ramp by the side of the bus station to get a better view when all hell broke lose.

You suddenly see this massive crowd of thousands literally sprinting down Jalan Pudu. It is a supremely unnerving experience seeing thousands of people sprinting towards you. The FRU trucks had arrived and tear gas canisters were being fired.

Thankfully, we were quite a distance away and escaped most of the effects. For the next round, the trucks began spraying stragglers and the more defiant PAS men with chemically-laced water. The FRU managed to separate the large crowd into two smaller ones; the group I was in was trapped on Jalan Pudu, hemmed in by the FRU on both sides while another group ran off towards Jalan Raja Chulan. There was a respite at this point as the FRU began marshalling their forces and slowly converged towards us. It was 2pm at this point.

Half an hour later, it started drizzling and the three of us sheltered in front of the shop-houses near the Tung Shin hospital. I was curious as to what was happening and peeked out onto the road; looking towards the Pudu Bus Station and Menara Maybank side. There was gas at the start of Jalan Pudu and I started yelling that we needed to run. At precisely that instant, a tear gas canister lands 10 feet from us. Pandemonium.

The five foot way in front of us was packed and we were bottle-necked. People did not want to run past the canister and I started yelling that we need to just run past the thing. I think I lost it at that stage, I just remember yelling 'Just run, keep moving, don't stop, don't stop!!'

Everyone started running and we clambered through the broken fences and ran up towards the Tung Shin hospital, tear gas stinging us. It was terrible being tear-gassed, you can hardly breathe, your eyes are watering. And rubbing your eyes only makes it worse. A few hundred of us huddled in front of the hospital on its hilltop position and we could see the FRU trucks spraying chemicals at the more hardcore supporters and the stragglers on Jalan Pudu. It was pouring at this stage and it helped dissipate the tear gas and dampen its effects.

We caught another breather there for about 10 minutes when the unthinkable happens; tear gas is fired into the hospital compound. If you believe the IGP that reports of tear gas being fired into the Tung Shin compound are berita angin, you need to get your head checked. Because I saw it with my own eyes.

I hear curses of 'Sial UMNO, Sial ni punya orang' and all manner of expletives. A defiant protester started gesticulating and shouting 'Ni Hospital la! Tembak buat apa?!' There seemed to be literally nowhere to run at this stage.

Thankfully it was only two or three canisters and the heavy rain was still in our advantage. Now, we had to decide whether to stay put because 'They won't raid a hospital la' or clamber over some fences behind the hospital onto Persiaran Raja Chulan and SRJK (C) Nan Kai behind us. We chose the latter and got to the other side with help from other demonstrators and made our way towards Jalan Ceylon and came out near the Istana Hotel.

I met a photographer friend at this point and my other two friends decided to call it a day. I found out later via news reports that the FRU had indeed raided the hospital and arrested several protesters recovering from the effects of tear gas. So it was a lucky escape.

The two of us headed down onto Jalan P Ramlee and Jalan Sultan Ismail, all the while following stragglers. There were BERSIH traffic marshals on motorbike who told us to head in the direction of Dang Wangi as demonstrators were re-gathering there.

At the intersection of Jalan Ampang and Jalan Sultan Ismail, we could see another massive crowd gathering in front of the Dang Wangi LRT station. It is now 3.15pm and they begin marching down Jalan Ampang. It is surreal watching tens of thousands marching in front of Zouk and SRJK (C) Lai Meng. Our destination; KLCC. We spill out in front of the Twin Towers and shut down the roads. There are insufficient police personnel at this point of time to control the protesters. I see Chua Jui Meng and Hatta Ramli giving speeches and most of us sit to hear them out.

Half an hour later, FRU personnel finally arrive with their trucks and tear gas and chemicals and finally manage to disperse the crowd with everyone running around KLCC or further down Jalan Ampang. I also see my first arrests. Uniformed police in groups of three or four corner off stragglers and arrest them with cable tie handcuffs. Everyone runs like ants under attack by a sadistic bully and that is finally the end of my rally experience. I hide out in KLCC Park for a while and eventually make it back into KLCC and anti-climatically end my evening re-watching Transformers 3 smelling of tear gas and chemicals.

Ultimately, it was at times awe-inspiring and sometimes I nearly wet my pants. Running away from police and dodging tear gas is something I hope I never have to do again. I doubt that will be the case though. My mentality is that if 1 million Malaysians flood the city, the police will not be able to handle us. Too bad there were only 6,000 (IGP and PM's words) to 50,000 protesters (BERSIH coalition estimates). Too many people stood back and watched and were apathetic and apolitical. Too many people were scared that something would happen and lastly too many of you fools have yet to even register to vote.

I have met too many Malaysians over in Australia; and I am sure there are many similar types in the UK, US, NZ and around the globe who simply cannot be bothered about the country they were born in, but know how to complain. Well, people, talk is cheap. When you have not even registered, you automatically give up your rights to complain. You may think that it does not involve you, but you have friends, you have family back home in Malaysia. Not everyone is as lucky as you and me who have OZ, UK, US, NZ, SG etc. permanent residencies. It is easy to run off to another country and earn your big bucks there, but ultimately, you are still a foreigner in a foreign land. Is it that difficult to have some love for the country of your birth? Just give up your damned Malaysian citizenship if you cannot be stuffed to even bother about your homeland. In a nutshell, how difficult is it to go to a post office and register? Are you an amputee? Did you lose a leg clearing landmines in Cambodia? Can you not drive your fat ass there?

Frankly, I am sick of reading about 'Can't wait to go to Melbourne for winter hols' or 'Las Vegas rocks!' or 'Awesome gelati in Italy' or 'Should I get a Hermes or a LV bag?' as Facebook posts and getting a blank look when asking these morons; 'What do you think about our government?' Get some damned perspective, people.

If this little rant of mine has convinced even one of you fence-sitters and 'yet-to-registers' to do something rather than sitting on your asses and complaining about our country, then at least I have done my small part for this country that I love and hope to die in.

Please share this note if I have either a) entertained you or b) inspired you or c) pissed you off, you unregistered idiot.