More than meets the eye at the barricades

The government has much more to answer than Bersih over the outbreak of violence during Saturday's rally, says the electoral watchdog.

KUALA LUMPUR: There was possibly “more going on at the barricades than meets the eye” before it was breached during Saturday’s rally, said Bersih.

However, despite the cryptic hint, Bersih 3.0 said that it reserves further comment on the matter until “all the evidence is presented.”

“Apart from the video evidence to date, we are receiving information that there was possibly more going-on at the barricades than meets the eye which may have been misleading to the people near them as to whether they could go through,” Bersih said in a statement today, without explaining further.

Meanwhile, Bersih reiterated that it viewed the court order obtained by the police to bar the public from entering Dataran Merdeka as “illegal”.

However, it also said it “does not condone the breaching of the barricades and the parties responsible should account to the public for their actions”.

“The breach of the barricades at Dataran Merdeka came after Bersih 3.0 declared the rally a success and gave instructions to the crowd to disperse.”

Bersih said the more serious issue was “whether the breaching of the barricades was an excuse for the disproportionate and excessive use of force by the police”.

Bersih said it had many questions such as:

• Who gave the order to come after the participants in that fashion?
• Who were the officers in Bersih T-shirts in the crowd?
• Who were those men in blue who had no identification numbers or names on their uniforms?
• Is it true that busloads of people were brought in just to create havoc and if so who brought them in?
• How do you do explain the vast difference in the behaviour of the police before and after the firing of tear gas?
• What exactly were their (police’s) instructions?
• Why is the government through the mainstream media choosing not to give the whole picture?

Bersih, which also called for an independent inquiry by Suhakam, said while Bersih had to answer questions, the government “has much more to answer for.”

Chilling reality

“The chilling reality is that the brutality shown this year by the police far exceeded the brutality shown last year.

“The majority of the participants were already dispersing. It was only those who breached the barricades that needed to be policed. The police were therefore only justified in taking reasonable measures to push back the participants beyond the barriers,” read the Bersih statement.

Bersih said the police’s action in firing “round after round” of tear gas at participants near Dataran Merdeka, along Jalan Tun Perak, Jalan Pudu and as far away as Petaling Street, was unjustified.

It added that the police also should not have beat up those they caught, while at the same time, preventing the participants from leaving the city by not letting the trains stop at the Masjid Jamek LRT station.

Bersih said both the organisers and the government had equal responsibilities to ensure peace and security.

“Yet in this case, the state imposed the entire burden on Bersih.

“Bersih 2.0 had full control until tear gas was fired. Once that happened the burden shifted to the police to handle the situation that they had created,” said Bersih.