Right But Wrong - My Experience of BERSIH 2.0 (Part 2)

Continuing with the story.....

So as we looked around us, we realized that we are standing quite near to the front line and I told myself : "This is not looking good man". My original plan was to just show up at KL and support BERSIH 2.0 while spending most of the time at somewhere safe, you know, somewhere which is out of the tear gas and water cannon's range. But since we were already there, we just stood there and continued with all the slogan chanting and national anthem singing. While standing in the midst of the crowd, there is a sense of unity, righteousness, and I definitely felt stronger. Just a simple glance at the people around us and we can see that Malaysian of all walks of life are there on that meaningful day.

Even Ang Mor (foreigner) was spotted among thousands of Malaysian.

After a while, a few leaders came to give their speech and it seems like there are some negotiation that happened between them and the police. Chanting of slogans continued after speeches were given. Our group refrained ourselves from chanting slogans which are associated with certain political parties and stick to those which are of neutral stand point. It is common when some people tries to hijack the rally to suit their personal agenda. We stood together with the crowd at Jalan Stadium until 3 something and one of the leaders told us that we have came here today to have a rally and we have accomplished what we wanted to do, and it is time for us to bersurai (dismiss). After hearing that, I thought that the rally on that day went peacefully without any clashes from both sides, but i was wrong.

It was during the march back that I realized the vast number of people who came on that day to support BERSIH 2.0. A lot of uncles aunties asked us which university we're from and where do we stay. Friendly people are all around us and at that time, I truly felt the warmness of living in a multiracial country where people can put down their differences and walk together for a common cause they believe in. Upon reaching the basketball stadium, reporting crew from TV3 can be seen standing on the second floor of the building and were booed by most of the passerby. From my point of view, the reporter was acting unnecessarily tense. Who knows, may be his boss asked him to act that way on TV. While passing by an ice cream vendor, the chanting turns from "BERSIH BERSIH" to "ICE CREAM ICE CREAM", which i find very amusing. And personally, I think this is how the atmosphere of a peaceful demonstration should be like - an atmosphere of happiness, fun and unity.

Upon reaching Petaling Street, I saw a bespectacled man with a big national flag walked to the front of the crowd and asked us to sing national anthem together. I found out later that the man was Wong Chin Huat. After the national anthem, we walked to Pasar Seni junction and saw FRU blocking the path on the other side. Again Wong Chin Huat requested the crowd to sing "Negaraku" one more time while marching towards the FRU and this happened. I saw the gas canister flying in the air and landed about 20 feet from us. We all ran to safety and me and Cindi ran to a back alley where a few others were seeking shelter. A short while after being exposed to the gas, I felt the effect of the gas which is burning sensation around my face and my arms. Cindi immediately took out the jar of salt she brought and distributing to the people around (The day earlier, I found out that salt and lemon juice could reduce the effect of tear gas and chemical laced-water). I took out the lemon juice I brought and shared it with a few of them as well. At the back alley, there were Malay, Chinese and Indian, all helping one another by offering of fresh water and salt.

After the gas has cleared, we went to regroup with our group and found that Pei Ling was missing as she was taking photos of the march when the tear gas was fired. Jerry went looking for her while we take some time to get a breather. When both Jerry and Pei Ling came back, we walk to Pasar Seni and was getting on the way to go back since its nearing 4pm and we have done what we wanted to do on that day. When we were at Pasar Seni, the FRU fired another round of tear gas at the crowd without any provocation, warning or whatsoever. While the crowd are walking away from the gas and moving towards KL Sentral, we heard a loud boom and found out that the police which are standing in the upper floor of the police station beside Pasar Seni threw a plastic bottle full of water at the crowd. This seriously reflect how unprofessional the so called "protector of the land" behaves.

On our way back to KL Sentral, we saw an old lady walking with a middle age couple. The old lady was 85 years old and came all the way from Puchong on her own to support the rally. The middle age couple was there to accompany her as she was all alone. When asked about whether her family knew about her coming to the rally, she told us that she didn't dare to let her son and daughter know because they wouldn't have let her come on that day. She really is a very good example which all of us should learn from. If an 85 years old granny can join the rally and let the world hear her, why can't the thousands of youngsters sitting in their air-conditioned room do the same?

Wonder Woman

When we reach KL Sentral, we had ourselves a celebration toast as we have accomplished our main goal (although standing in the front line was not part of the plan T.T).

A small toast among our group members