I am just a normal person, trapped in the rat race, trying to earn for a living. I am concerned about the politics in Malaysia, but wasn't bothered too much, because I think I can't make a chance for a better Malaysia. I heard about the Bersih 2.0, where people are trying to fight for a fair election. However, police are trying to stop the peace demonstration, they threaten to catch people who join the rally, who wear yellow on 709. Everyone is in fear, so do I.
I met bunch of my close friends for dinner on the eve 709. My friends told me they are going for the demonstration, I wasn't so sure, because the fear in me. But I asked myself a question, I been living this country almost 23 years, what had I done for my country. None. So I decided to join. I am not an extremist, I don't want to fight with the police, I don't want to commit crime, I just want to walk in peace to let the government hear the voices of the people.
Despite the drama how the government played the Bersih rally out, ask them to cancel the street rally and gather in stadium instead, and reject the permit to demonstrate in the stadium in the last minute. Police blocked all the access to the KL city, road block and check the entire citizen who tried to enter the city. Instead, they just can arrange a meeting to hear Bersih out, and allow them to hand the very sensible memorandum. But, no, they were too afraid, they were afraid the change will cost them the political power to rule the government, they want their citizen to stay home and let the government do whatever they want to do.
709, wake up in the morning with great spirit, friends are coming over and started dressing up in yellow. But read the tweets from Bersih, try not to wear yellow till we get into the demonstration. So we ditch the plan to wear yellow. Take monorail to Hang Tuah, had our brunch in Times Square and planning our road map to the gather. We are looking at everyone in the street, they look back in your eyes, at that moment, you know that you are not alone.
Followed by a big crowd, we slowly marching towards to the Hentian Pudu. Once we reach, you can see thousands of people already there. Malay, Chinese, Indian, even foreigners are there. From young, middle age to old, everyone is there. Chanting, "Bersih Bersih, Pilihan Raya". As we marching closer to the hentian pudu, FRU already block the access there.
Out of sudden, they started to fire the tear gas at the innocent citizen. I was lucky at first, the tear gas didn't affect me. We march to opposite direction, they block us again. So we trying to go back the original direction. We were stuck again. We didn't give up, you could hear the chanting everywhere, so I followed. We sang our national anthumn very loud and proud, we just want them army forces to know, we come in peace, we are Malaysian and we love our country very much. The trucks tried to drive to our direction, we all sat down on the road to prove that we are not afraid.
Out of sudden, they fired the tear gases at us. This time I wasn't lucky, I was coughing like crazy, eyes hurts like mad and I can't even breath. We are panic, but we didn't run. Instead, we let the women to pass through first. As we let the women to run from the tear gases, they fired another round of tear gases, right in the middle of the crowds, this time we are in trouble. We ran back near to Tung Shin Hospital, and they still keep firing the tear gases, you could see the women, old uncle and auntie are suffering, so did I. I was very angry, how could they treated their own citizen like this? We are not terrorist, we march in peace, we didn't start any fight with the army forces, and they couldn't careless.
"One of the worst acts of violence, police fired tear gas into the compound of Tung Shin Hospital, severely jeopardizing the health not only of the rakyat who had sought refuge there, but the patients there as well. This was one of only various acts of totally unwarranted violence by the police against a rakyat who had exercised their constitutional right to gather peacefully." from Bersih official website.
You probably think the violence end there, no, you are dead wrong. They corned us, at the hospital car park and start to use their water canon to spray the chemical water at us. I am among one of the victim. You felt the burn in your whole body, the pain is almost unbearable, and soon you eyes hurts like mad, you can't breathe and you can't see, people are trying to run away from the water canon. I was in very dangerous situation, due to immense pain, I almost fainted and someone just held my hand and walk me. The malay uncle offered me salt, the indian lady was offering me drinks, someone just pass the cream for me to ease my pain. At that moment, you know, that's the country that you want to live in, no races differentiation, only people with a kind heart.
They started another round of tear gases and we had to climb over the hills and walk to Bursa. Again, you probably think the pain caused will scare us and we will just walk back home. Again, you are dead wrong. We all rest for a while to get over the pain caused and we start our second round of marching. This time, the number of people is getting larger and larger. We chanted the Bersih cheers, all the way in the street, passing by P.Ramlee streets all the way to KLCC. Cars and motorcycles are horning, people are cheering for our bravery, the scene is beautiful.
We walked all the way to the KLCC and we sat down peacefully on the road. The number of people is amazing, you can feel the power of people, the power of unity. At the moment you thought no one will actually join the demonstration until you see the number of people who join the rally, you know, there is still hope in the country. We sat down and listen to the talk of the leaders, we sang the Negaraku, we shouted our heart out. You can feel the passion, the love of nation, the warmth of the people. After roughly 30 mins, we all leave the place in peace.
Aftermaths:
To the governments
Thank you to the government for making such a good effort to stop this event from happening, you are actually doing a free promotion for the event. Thank you the road blocks, people got nothing better to do on the weekends, so more people are joining the rally. Thank you for using violence at the citizens, you make us realised we are actually just animal to you.
To the people who joined the demonstration
Thank you for your participation. That was truly a 1 Malaysia Gathering. We can't make it, if either one of you were not there. We made today a history, we taught government a valuable lesson.
To people who didn't join the demonstration
It's alright that you didn't join, we could feel your spirit with us. Keep spreading the news, help to create the awareness!
Signing off,Steve Lim
Source: http://www.facebook.com/nasilemak2020
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