Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia division, said Saturday that the Malaysian government had again shown its contempt for basic rights and freedoms.
“Despite all the talk of ‘reform’ over the past year, we’re seeing a repeat of repressive actions by a government that does not hesitate to use force when it feels its prerogatives are challenged,” Mr. Robertson said.......NYT
The message sent out by 300,000 people to the BN is this; stop playing games we are just plain fed up and we shall not take it sitting down anymore this is the last time.
On a very conservative note I'd say there were about 250,000 people in KL well if you account for the rest in Penang, Ipoh, Melaka, East Malaysia and the world over I'd add another 50,000 or so and say that was a total of 300,000 Malaysians rallying behind the slogan of Bersih 3 to send the message to the government.
It is time to up the ante, there should be a fourth and possibly a fifth and a sixth before the elections to get this elections commission to agree to clean up the rolls and stop meddling.
Now we should also call for the resignation of the chief and his deputy that they have not disclosed they were UMNO members.
A roumer circulating town is that the electoral votes have already been cast, it is but a rumor and I do not intend to spread lies, but we have been used to finding out that rumors these days have more credibility than the official versions given by the governments so what shall we do.
There are about 40,000 discovered phantoms on the voting list, many constituencies have hardly got 3,000 voters so you can imagine what 40,000 can do, but that is what has been discovered, what about the undiscovered how many hundreds of thousands are there?
The people are getting tired of this government and its antics, just imagine people sitting on the streets of KL in full view of Dataran Merdaka right in the middle of KL in its busiest parts and all because they were not allowed to sit in the square itself by the mayor?
Do you really believe it was the mayor's call?
Was he working on instructions? I'll let you decide.
Wouldn't the dataran have been a more appropriate place than the roads?
It was the same in Bersih 2 they did not give permission to go to Merdeka Stadium, Hishamuddin had no good reasons and this time around it was him who came out and offered Merdeka Stadium, I have always held that this man is less than intelligent, and now you know why.
Hishamuddin is a "dog in a manger."
It is very plain, it was at the eleventh hour that the decision not to allow Bersih the use of Dataran Merdeka was made by the Mayor of Kuala Lumpur, this time it was not the Police who normally did piece of the work for BN. Then the offer of Merdeka Stadium came along.
Had Bersih taken the offer of Merdeka Stadium, the Stadium authorities would have been told to refuse them that, then it would have gone an on till there would be no place. Bersih could not at the eleventh hour play a cat and mouse game with Hishamuddin and the BN, so the plan to stick to Dataran Meerdeka was not changed and it was the right move, they did not fall into the BN trap.
If you were there yesterday the people in the hundreds of thousands were there blocked from entering the Dataran, it was blocked as though it was a war zone, helicopters flying low to monitor the people at the various approaches to the Dataran. All entrances to the Dataran were sealed off with barbed wire on top of the barricades, yes barbed wire,in Dataran Merdeka even during the Indonesian confrontation when a plane load of commandos of the Indonesian army landed in Johore by parachute the security was not so tight, these were Malaysians, not some foreign army, in their own country wanting to sit on their national square, "Independence Square" we call it the Dataran Merdeka, what was the security breach?
Policemen by the thousands, yes by the thousands cordoning off the area surrounding the square, people by the hundreds of thousands sitting on the roads then suddenly they the police began moving out leaving the crowd face to face with the Federal Reserve Unit, was this what the mayor meant when he said, "we are ready?" It looked like they were preparing to intimidate and then attack the crowd.
Even as the ordinary police ( our mata mata) were walking out the crowd suspected nothing and the police can testify to this the crowd in Jalan Tun Perak/Jalan Tengku Abdul Rahman intersection were chanting Police handsome!! Police Handsome!!! offering a tribute to the Police and as the police left the FRU appeared right in front in the full view of the crowd, extremely intimidating.
It was a hugely intimidating presence of the FRU, the Bell atop one of the Police trucks sounded at about twelve thirty noon just as about a thousand policemen maybe more had marched off the front line in front of those sitting in protest in Jalan Tun Perak, and Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman area, people were sitting on the road within a glance of the square which was empty and which was by any measure the more appropriate place for them to gather but the Police used the Federal Reserve Unit fully armed to the teeth to handle a riot they were about to create and blame it on others, this was the modus operandi as I saw it.
Ordinary people do not turn violent, but when ordinary people are ridiculed to such extents that they are thought to be plain stupid - when they were out there to champion a cause they believe in so much and which is so important to them, their children,and their children's children, they will react and react they did, they did attempt to move into the square the only right place to be in at that time instead of blocking roads, shops and businesses, and to show the authorities now they meant business, and they did, and when this happened it was mayhem, in Jalan Tengku Abdul Rahman.
Mayhem in KL created by its Mayor , since he decided to be the scapegoat let us make him just that, let's not mince anything up, he was responsible.
If the people had the dataran, they would have been overjoyed it would have overflowed and they'd have returned, but alas that is something this government will never allow, and I'll tell you the reason why.
If the people are in a confined area their numbers can be estimated with a great deal of accuracy, this is something the BN is scared of, you can't intimidate them either because they have got what they came for to sit at the Dataran in this case, happy people do nto get intimidated easily, but when for no sensible reason you refuse them the use of their national square - the Dataran Merdeka, and especially when DBKL could afford to have allowed a Multinational Company the use of that very same facility for their family day, what is the rationale? The Mayor has some serious questions to answer.
Instead of allowing the people their right to assemble at the Dataran, they blocked it out using the Federal Reserve unit and the barbed wire barricades. This government intimidated its people and drove them to fight back.
How have Malaysians become a threat to their own Nation, especially when they were there as one Malay, Chinese, Kadazaan, Iban, Indian, Senoi, and all the rest. Now what was the threat? They were united as one.
Our Court of Arms says it all Bersekutu Bertambah Mutu (Unity is Strength)so how was this a threat, the government has contradicted its our National Motto. That tells us a lot of this government.
At Bersih 3 the people fully subscribed to our National Motto, Bersekutu Bertambah Mutuand that is what has driven fear into the Barisan we shall not allow ourselves to be divided again and to get that spirit going we need more rallies till we get this government and its cronies to succumb.
The people who attended Bersih came at their own expense, I can safely vouch that KTM made more money on their commuter lines on that one single day than it has ever made before, the trains were so packed, there was no standing room, people were in a hilarious mood, it was really akin to carnival time, but they were going for a serious cause to tell the authorities not to steal the elections.
Well they have begun this grand theft they stole Bersih 3, yes Najib and his gang stole Bersih 3 or so they think, no we shall be back and that is why I say, let's have 4, 5 and maybe even six.
For many the rally was over at three but there were still many who were totally disgusted, they were the young and they remained there in a stand off with the police till about 7.00 p.m.
I remained there till 7.00 p.m. there was no good explanation as to why they could not be at the Dataran, no good reason why they could not sit in the square and all they wanted was to do just that, by 5.30 that crowd was about 2,000 if the police had been gracious enough to let them in they would have gone there, maybe danced sang and left. what's wrong with that, well it's just that our police force are not allowed to think and this is a classic example.
I talked to these young boys, they were adamant, one asked in Malay, "Uncle why can't I go there, is this not my country, does it belong to the mayor, to Hishamuddin, the BN or all of us, I want to get there, today!!!" I understood his sentiment, I doubt Najib would, no way Hisham or the Mayor for that matter, I do not think they are humane enough to.
These were our young who included girls and they would have been glad to have just got there, what was there to lose our territorial integrity, our National integrity, to a foreign power? We lost all that not doing what we had to for our young and it manifested itself there.
Oh for goodness sake these are our children, and what ensued was a cat and mouse game between the police and these young ones.
At 7.00 the police sent in their "terror" unit, a group of over enthusiastic young policemen with canes they came in numbers chased and assaulted these young boys with sticks, kicking and punching them.
On the one hand we have young who feel they are being cheated and robbed by this government and on the other the Government has a young wing in the police force they have allowed to carry on as thugs.
this is not the first time these policemen have seen action in this form, it has happened before only that they were not uniformed.
My suggestion is the same we go for another few rallies in a very short space of time, because we know UMNO's stand when it comes to the elections commission and the execution of their duties, the need is urgent our elections is going to be a sham a real sham, and when that happens anything can follow especially with an irresponsible government like the BN.
Links to visit http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/malaysia-police-fire-tear-gas-at-thousands-rallying-for-fair-elections/2012/04/28/gIQAfUQhnT_gallery.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/29/world/asia/malaysian-capital-braces-for-rally-by-democracy-activists.html?emc=tnt&tntemail0=y
We have seen the news,read the reports,the videoclippings,saw the tears ,the violence and also heard all the stories which came out of BERSIH 3.0. The world media were informed three days before that Dataran Merdeka is a no,no for the planned 2hours sit down by the Bersih 3.0 from 2pm to 4pm by the Mayor of DBKL.