12/11: The day that changed Malaysia forever
Category: Letters
Posted by: raja petra
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
I guess because I am a white man I was able to simply walk through the police barricades even though I was wearing a yellow shirt... so I walked over to Dataran Merdeka which was so tightly closed off by police that not even a Malaysian mouse wearing a yellow shirt could have entered.
Had the police offered a protective organisational role the whole event would have gone off without a glitch. They should have realised that they could never have controlled a crowd as large as the one that joined together on that day because they were totally outnumbered. As it is all they managed to do was further destroy their reputation which was previously none too pretty in the minds of most Malaysians.
Fallacy number two. A permit to march was not given to the organisers not because of the chaos and disturbance to the peace. It was not because a few shopkeepers were worried and it wasn’t because of the potential to cause traffic chaos. And it had nothing to do with the perception others have of our society
As pointed out above, the chaos and traffic disruption was caused solely by the police, had they done their job properly the chaos would have been kept to an absolute minimum. The concerns of the few shopkeepers involved is laughable, any good retailer would have taken advantage of the huge passive crowd at his doorstep
The permit was not issued for two reasons: the present government deplores democracy and will do anything to prevent the people from exercising their right to run the country: and the egos of those in power are so massively inflated that they cannot possibly bear the insult associated with the people saying what they think.
I would go so far as to suggest that Malaysia's international reputation has been significantly enhanced through the efforts of the people who were brave enough to stand up to injustices in this country
A braver man than Badawi would have already resigned in the face of the massive insult he has delivered to the people of Malaysia. But in this ego driven country a full apology and an explanation of the reasons why the police behaved as they did is the least that should be expected.
Instead we get him blaming the demonstrators for politicising the role of the King. Maybe someone should point out that as Head of State, the King has a constitutionally defined role in the politics of Malaysia, and as a citizen of a constitutionally defined democracy he also has the right to a political opinion
Yours sincerely,
Dennis Madden aka Densemy
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
I guess because I am a white man I was able to simply walk through the police barricades even though I was wearing a yellow shirt... so I walked over to Dataran Merdeka which was so tightly closed off by police that not even a Malaysian mouse wearing a yellow shirt could have entered.
Had the police offered a protective organisational role the whole event would have gone off without a glitch. They should have realised that they could never have controlled a crowd as large as the one that joined together on that day because they were totally outnumbered. As it is all they managed to do was further destroy their reputation which was previously none too pretty in the minds of most Malaysians.
Fallacy number two. A permit to march was not given to the organisers not because of the chaos and disturbance to the peace. It was not because a few shopkeepers were worried and it wasn’t because of the potential to cause traffic chaos. And it had nothing to do with the perception others have of our society
As pointed out above, the chaos and traffic disruption was caused solely by the police, had they done their job properly the chaos would have been kept to an absolute minimum. The concerns of the few shopkeepers involved is laughable, any good retailer would have taken advantage of the huge passive crowd at his doorstep
The permit was not issued for two reasons: the present government deplores democracy and will do anything to prevent the people from exercising their right to run the country: and the egos of those in power are so massively inflated that they cannot possibly bear the insult associated with the people saying what they think.
I would go so far as to suggest that Malaysia's international reputation has been significantly enhanced through the efforts of the people who were brave enough to stand up to injustices in this country
A braver man than Badawi would have already resigned in the face of the massive insult he has delivered to the people of Malaysia. But in this ego driven country a full apology and an explanation of the reasons why the police behaved as they did is the least that should be expected.
Instead we get him blaming the demonstrators for politicising the role of the King. Maybe someone should point out that as Head of State, the King has a constitutionally defined role in the politics of Malaysia, and as a citizen of a constitutionally defined democracy he also has the right to a political opinion
Yours sincerely,
Dennis Madden aka Densemy