It was meant to be a huge commemoration of last year's BERSIH rally, the very start of the snowball effect which led to the March 8 election outcome. The ruling coalition, BN had never been thrashed so badly.
So the cops were sent in to do their evil deed. It was a remarkably peaceful gathering, an exercise of our right to express ourselves as stated in the Constitution.
But they assaulted the innocent women and children. Hit them, punched them, kicked them. Arrested 24 people, including state assemblymen and parliamentarians who belonged to the Opposition.
Masterwordsmith asks, "Does democracy still exist in Malaysia??" Frankly, I offered my condolences to the good people of Malaysia over the death of freedom and democracy a long time ago.
What intrigues me is the question of, "Why?"
Michelle Yoon is obviously an intelligent young thinker, as she ponders on why the FRUs were there:
What gets to me, and what I seriously don’t understand, is why there were FRUs at the vigil last night. These vigils have been happening every weekend, all around the country, for more than a month now. And not ONCE in ANY of these vigils, did we even have a slight problem. No FRUs, no arrests, all was well and fine.
What is so different about THIS vigil, that the police felt the need to block access to Amcorp Mall from as early as 7pm? What happened during THIS vigil, that the police felt the need to arrest certain people?
Could it be because RPK has been released?
Or maybe because BERSIH was one of the organisers for THIS vigil, and so there was a problem?
I thought about it for awhile too.
And I'm wondering if the key to it is racial. Most of our protests before have been predominantly Chinese and Indian. But with BERSIH, a huge number of Malays were involved as well.
I, for one, remember last year's rally. I had not expected that many Malays to come together with their Chinese and Indian brothers and sisters in a united move, calling for free and fair elections.
Now the government does not want to lose the Malay vote, which is crucial to them. Of course, by brutalising a peaceful crowd, it may have achieved just the opposite.
Ah well. Can't say we don't know much about our Bapak Demokrasi.
Other bloggers:
Police Charged into Malaysians Singing National Anthem - Wong Chin Huat
Rakyat Pearl Harbored by BN/UMNO Police !!! - Margeemar
Anti ISA Vigil at PJ being intruded by FRU! - Jarod
Pandemonium erupts as police charge into crowd - Anil Netto
Cops storm and brutalise peaceful, unarmed, Negaraku singing crowd - Nathaniel Tan
Bloody Sunday - Euphoria in Misery
The Bloody Sunday - Melvin Mah
2 comments:
A growth curve exists only when one learns from one's mistakes.
And also, if you do something once, and achieve a bad result, how would doing exactly the same thing again help you achieve a different or better result?
What happened last year, at the Bersih rally, splashed us and our police across the pages of newspapers worldwide. And the news wasn't good.
And the result? What happened at the March 8 elections.
So how can doing more of the same this time around, make things any better? After one year, no learning curve here, eh?
This teacher gives them an D: for being dim, dense and dim-witted. And just plain mean!
Pat
so singing the national anthem is now a crime.
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