Malaysians have endured the tyranny, suppression and total disregard of their demoractic rights long enough.
On November 10, almost as a last salvo, close to 100,000 marched from City Centre to present a memorandum to HM.
Barisan Nasional and UMNO controlled media have literally stranggled to death any avenues for democratic reforms, checks and balances and or press freedom in this country.
On November 10th, my fellow brave Malaysians has decided that this is their country, and they have had enough of UMNO and their plundering cohorts.
I present to you real life accounts as Police fired tear gas on their fellow Malaysians. No unruly behaviour, violence or any semblance of a riot happened (as opposed to what the official press will want you to believe). It all began when the police fired.
Account 1
Her eyes reddened by tear gas and her clothes soaking wet from a heavy
downpour, Hamidah Ibrahim, a 23-year-old undergraduate from the northern city of
Ipoh, huddled against a shop wall in Tun Perak Road, a main thoroughfare in
Kuala Lumpur that is usually clogged with vehicles but on Saturday was crowded
with thousands of protestors. Across the street, red-helmeted officers of
Malaysia's Federal Reserve Unit fired several rounds of tear gas at the crowds
before a baton charge that sent protesters running helter-skelter. Hamidah wiped
her eyes and adjusted her tudung, the Malay headscarf that is obligatory for
Muslim women. "This is like being in hell," she says amid the thud of smoke
grenade launchers.
Account 2
There are two indisputable facts about the rally on Saturday. The first is
that all the chaos on that day was caused by the police. It was the police who
set up the road blocks disrupting the movement of traffic all over KL. It was
the police who adopted an aggressive stance towards the crowd of demonstrators.
It was the police who precipitated all the acts of violence and without any
provocation. It was the police who sprayed the extremely well-behaved crowd with
chemical laced water cannon and tear gas and it was the police who cannoned
sections of the crowd standing inside the gate of Masjid Jamek. I know because I
was standing inside the gates of the mosque and got saturated and was left
standing in a pool of foaming water.Sure, the crowd made plenty of noise and
there were many fists being shaken at the police but whenever threatened the
crowd backed off and took alternative routes to seek their destination. I
witnessed no attempt by the police to warn off the crowd using loud hailers even
though I was at the front line of the crowd.In Jalan Tuanku Rahman, it was the
police who again used tear gas and cannon and resorted to baton charges, beating
their batons on their shields to further break up an already dispersed crowd.
And it was the police who were seen to violently manhandle members of the crowd.
It was the police who closed off access to the LRT stations within the city area
thus causing disruption to many non-participating citizens
Once we exited the station at Masjid Jamek, we were greeted by
the ever heart-warming sight of riot police. Here they call them the Federal
Reserve Unit, but they are nothing more than mercenaries in uniform. Zealots
armed with batons and gas launchers, completely apathetic to the growing crowd,
swollen by passer-bys and passionate Malaysians. The police sprayed preliminary
water-cannon fire on the crowd, which I wasn't to concerned about. It was only
upon reaching home that I found out they were contaminated with chemicals.Now
there is something of great importance that I need to stress; in no way,
absolutely none, did the demonstrators aim to incite the police. There was lots
of chanting, of slogan shouting, of crowd rallying, but there was no hatred or
contempt hurled against those in power. In short, we did not merit the treatment
we received. One may say, "But it was an illegal gathering anyway." How can the
executive issue a decree banning the people in a democracy from voicing their
opinion? We are not looking for a riot. We're not looking for impeachment. We're
not looking for a revolution. We want clean elections. After all, if the
government did its job efficiently, without corruption,racism and wanton
aggression, why would we want to vote for the opposition? The demonstration
today was truly a model demonstration. A peaceful, passionate crowd standing
defiant, in a completely passive manner. It was a moment to remember, the
solidarity on the f aces of others as we stared down the threats in the hope of
a better tomorrow. All until the police became violent.
Fellow Malaysians, firing on their countrymen. It wasn't so much as the
actual shooting which was horrendous, but seeing them take their line of sight
made my stomach turn. These uncompassionate robots, protectors of the society
shooting against the people they swear to protect. Here they are, ladies and
gentlemen, "dispersing crowds", while paedophiles run riot, pun very much
intended. When they fired, they shot directly infront of the crowd. Shaz and I
happened to be caught in between a mass of bodies and a drain barrier. Just like
some bad war movie, everything seemed to happen in slow motion, as the cannister
rolled to a stop barely 10 feet away. Time sped back to normal as the people
around me started scrambling into the nearby station. Shaz and I were stuck
outside, but fortunately, my brother was pulled in by a fairy-tale hero. "Give
Me Liberty or Give Me Death", but don't give me tear gas. The following account
is in no way dramatisation, it is, as it is. Maybe it was my severe
underestimation of the pain, both physical and psychological, that caused my
hesitation. If not for the rain, I shudder to think of the potential pain. Had I
known... Completely immobile and covering our faces with wet cloths, we were
powerless for a good 45 seconds to the gas. Initially, you feel a sting in your
nose. As the pain increases, it ignites your eyeballs into blindness. As the
pain mounts unbearable, tears streaming uncontrollably out of your eyes, the gas
enters the pores on your face, the sensation acid to the pH. As you try and
escape the gas, running literally blindly, with your skin aflame, the gas enters
your lungs, constricting respiration to almost nil. Every inhalation you take is
void of oxygen, and soon you will not be able to breathe. More than once the
thought of death surfaced in my mind, as I moved with, not fought against the
crowd to clear the area. Shazee later told me she thought she was as good as
gone as well. Tear gas brings you to the edge of death, only for you to be
resuscitated back into Hell.
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