Who provoked the violence?

The police claim that a few demonstrators who broke through the fence to get onto Dataran Merdeka provoked the police to retaliate? Is that so? Is that violence? Violence on whom, the police, the fence?

Jackson Ng, Retired Journalist

In a mass rally or gathering, everyone knows that it takes only a small spark to cause mayhem. And human nature, as well as animals, is such that defence is the only response to attack.

So, let us analyse what happened at Bersih 3.0 before we fall into the propaganda trap of the evil Barisan Nasional (BN) government.

Bersih was meant to be a sit-in (repeat SIT-IN) on Dataran Merdeka. For the police and BN morons, do you know what is sit-in? It is peaceful.

But the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) and its mayor decided that the venue cannot be used by demonstrators, only for national events.

In the first place, Dataran Merdeka does not belong to them. Secondly, Dataran Merdeka has, in past, been used for non-national events by BN and the private sector.

Isn’t the rakyat’s democratic right to demand for fair and clean elections not of national interest? Why is the Umno-led BN government so afraid to implement electoral reforms that facilitate fair elections to be conducted? The fact that BN rejects Bersih’s proposed list of electoral reforms is admission of its dirty ways to hold on to power with the use of brute force.

The Bersih supporters turned up in the tens of thousands but not a single one of them carried weapons. They just marched towards Dataran Square.

So, how did it turn violent? Again, the BN-controlled police did not learn from their past mistakes in Bersih 1.0 and Bersih 2.0.

The firing of chemical-laced water and tear-gas on the rakyat is the police weapon of violence to provoke the masses.

The police claim that a few demonstrators who broke through the fence to get onto Dataran Merdeka provoked the police to retaliate? Is that so? Is that violence? Violence on whom, the police, the fence?

The police say the demonstrators had broken the law by breaking through the security barricade that prevented the demonstrators to get into the open and vacant field. Is that justification for the police to go for the kill?

I am sure if the police had just let them in, and then arrested them one by one and take them away in black maria, no violence would have occurred. It is the shooting of chemical laced water and tear gas that provoked the clash and mayhem.

There is another credible witness to the violence propagated by the BN police. The press photographers and reporters. The assault on journalists, destruction and seizure of cameras are testimony of the BN police’s attempt to hide their evil ways of using violence on the rakyat to serve their political masters.

Yes! Congratulations to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak for another excellent world display of Malaysia’s policing ways to uphold democracy.

We are again a focus of attention in the world and also the laughing stock. We are now no better off than Burma’s military junta.