I would like to share my Bersih 3.0 experience with you guys all there. Why i attend it? Well the reason is obvious, to document this historic event in photographs. Will i gain anything? Maybe yes and maybe not and if not careful i could have been killed in action too! It all started at Subang Jaya KTM station. It is packed like Sardine can food. Everyone was pushing each other to get into the train the Malaysian way...nobody queue up. The old and women with children will suffer.. Basically my first mission of the day is to get to Jalan Sultan by public transport cause most of the major road heading towards there are closed.
I try to travel light but end up with 2 bags, one to carry my extra stuff such as mineral water, cookies, IC, money, towel, salt etc..and another one for my Olympus OM-D camera. So in short i travel "heavy"
When i reach there, the Royal Malaysia Police all acted "calmly". They did not beat us or scold us. They just stand in line parading. Heck i even get to take photo with them. It was very peaceful. No violance. So i say to myself, this is not so bad. It is a peaceful demostration indeed.
Jalan Sultan at around 10-12pm is very calm. It was like a fiesta. With different groups coming together to voice out their "concerns". One of them that i never heard of is Selamatkan Bumi Pengerang, where they claims the goverment is reclaiming the land from a bunch of fisherman to build the world largest petrolchemical plant which is as hazardous as the Lynas project. In short this is like another Lynas project. For more info goto
www.facebook.com/Selamatkan Bumi Pengerang
I also notice another group of people in green shirt which protest against the setting up of Lynas factory in Malaysia.
I find it funny that people choose V for Vendeta as their mask in this demo. We are peaceful people..we dont bomb goverment buildings to protest against something like V for Vendetta!
Bersih 3.0 banners on the road with supporters "posing" for photographers!!
Jalan Sultan is full of "Yellow Man". You can really see a lot of people from different race and places. This is so 1 Malaysia.
The organiser told us that the road to Dataran Merdeka is blocked. So we sit here instead to Duduk Bantah. No water canon and tear gas "yet". Mind you the weather is damn hot. The road is burning! and yet these people still sit on the road. Respect!
People Mountain, People Sea...all full with yellow man.,
I have never seen Jalan Petaling so crowded before. We march from Jalan Sultan to Jalan Petaling and then stuck here again. Same reason, road block everywhere..
These are the other Stop Lynas group. Very easy to spot them. Green people!
I think this uncle have the best mask of the day :) He is like sort of a hybrid hero both representing yellow and green.
All of us walk together, every little step closer to our objectives.
This is where the journey ends. We all stuck at HSBC building and is not able to proceed any further. So most of us just sit here for duduk bantah. Singing Negaraku and chanting "hidup rakyat, bersih bersih thingy..."
In the midst of chaos i find this interesting uncle which i name him uncle bersih playing a violin. This is his way of sending peaceful messages to the public. I find this beautiful. The crowd is certainly impress by this "street musician"
Hours has passed and we are still stuck there. The sun is burning us...so some of us take shelters outside the shop houses.
When i first walk to the frontline of FRU taking photos, i say to myself..wow so peaceful, no violence.
Heck i even go closer to take photos even i risk getting beaten up..
But then something fishie happen...The FRU move back and the BOMBA car move in with a lot of reinforcement. No warning and they start firing water canon and tear gas at us! WTF...why why..there is no confrontation here..no violance..no chaos..why police fire at us..in fact i was at point blank..i am drench with chemical waters and my eye burning due to the tear gas..F them...
I was force to retreat..but i am quite dissapointed at the way police handle this situation, they could have give us a warning and asked us to move back before firing those unnecessary gas and chemical water at us!!.. i retreat back to KTM at 4pm and i call it off for the day.. My mission is accomplish.
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