The video was originally posted in http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTcqgtGB0LY
Bersih 3.0 (https://www.facebook.com/notes/ineza-roussille/my-bersih-30/10150729076799891?notif_t=note_comment)
There wasn’t really any doubt in my mind as to whether I was going to attend Bersih 3.0. I was there last year, and in my opinion, not enough had changed since then, apart from the bullshit-o-meter getting cranked up to full blast.
This time, I was lucky enough to be part of a team documenting the event to be uploaded continuously onto the Bersih 3.0 Youtube website (Bersih428). We had breakfast together at 9.00 am then split up into teams of two and headed off to our designated areas. My friend, Nader and I were assigned to Pasar Seni so we made our way there. It was a beautiful morning, with a clear buzz of excitement hanging in the air. There were already groups of people in front of Central Market by the time we arrived, mingling about, singing, and of course, eating.
I started to take some videos of the early morning crowd, and uploaded them without any problem. More and more people started arriving via LRT or otherwise, and the area started to slowly fill up. I kept recording, but after 11am, I couldn’t upload anything. I asked the rest of the team, and they were having similar problems. By 12.30pm, it was useless, nobody could get onto Twitter, much less upload videos. So there was to be no live coverage of Bersih 3.0.
Ambiga arrived at Central Market around then, bringing a crowd with her. Then, huge groups started arriving from Brickfields. There was cheering and chanting, balloons were being thrown around, songs were sung, poems were read. It was not unlike a carnival, and even under the searing heat, the excitement was infectious.
Unit Amal, the group assigned to take care of security, started to clear a lane from the stage to the street for the VIPs at about 1.30pm. Ambiga had just made a short speech, and the crowd was about to move. We decided to stay with Ambiga, because presumably, she would lead the pack to Dataran Merdeka.
Nader and I stayed in front of the crowd as they started to make their way down Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock and then onto Jalan Tun H S Lee, heading towards Masjid Jamek. Every street that we went past, there were huge crowds ready and waiting to join us, chanting ‘Hidup Rakyat’ and ‘Bersih’ the whole way. We were running about trying to find a good angle to cover the crowds coming in from every direction. If only we had a 360 degree lens. My first impression was that, there were way more people than last year. Double the amount, if not more. There was seriously, a lot of people. Really, I can’t stress that enough, a lot of people. A lot.
We weren’t at the front of the pack anymore, as we joined huge crowds already at Masjid Jamek. It was starting to get really cramped, and it wasn’t so easy to get a good angle to shoot from. Ambiga had made her way to Masjid Jamek too by then, and started to give a speech in a middle of the crowd, with the thousands and thousands (really, a lot) of people cheering her on. Unfortunately, she only had a megaphone to project her voice, and people beyond a 20-meter radius of her couldn’t understand what she was saying. I learnt later that she had said that the rally was a success and that we could disperse. But we didn’t get that message, and it was still only two-something, so we kept moving forward with the crowd.
The mood was still very energetic. Everybody there, young and old, were chanting and singing. Once someone started with, ‘Bersih! Bersih!’, the crowd would respond with a huge roar of chants. It felt like victory.
We moved forward still until we were almost in front of the barrier to Dataran Merdeka. Desperate to get a good shot of the crowd from a higher angle, we tried to maneuver ourselves around the crowd for a spot to plant ourselves. But before long, we were literally stuck in the crowd, about 30 meters in front of the barrier, sandwiched and unable to move.
We waited for a while, unsure of what to do, or what was happening. No one seemed very sure of what was happening. Then, it seemed like people were trying to get past the barrier. We couldn’t see exactly what was happening there, but at some point, it seemed like they had broken through. Nader, who’s a bit taller than the crowd, suddenly pointed out that the police were running away from the barrier. That was confusing for all of about 5 seconds, because then we saw the water cannons start shooting into Dataran, presumably at the people who had run in.
The panic spread really, really fast. Because we could see past the barrier, we understood the panic, but the crowd who were off to the side of the street, had no idea what was happening at that point. So the people in front of the barrier immediately started to push back, while the people off to the side were still pushing forward, with us in the center being crushed by the two sides. It was scary to say the very least. My mind raced through every news report I’d ever read of people getting trampled in a crowd of panic. I was desperate to get out of there, and prayed that I would stay on my feet and not drop my camera on someone’s head.
Everyone pleaded for calm and not to push. But you just moved wherever the crowd moved, there was really no way of fighting it. And just as we thought that situation was scary enough, tear gas canisters flew into the sardine-packed crowd where we were. People started screaming and pushing harder. The smoke blew over our heads and all our senses were shot. The mob of bodies started to lose balance and sway and sure enough, a group of about 5 or 6 people crumbled into a heap a few feet from us. Everyone else could’ve easily fallen on top of them, but the people surrounding the fallen had made a protective circle and pulled them all up to their feet, amidst all the coughing and gagging.
It was my first time getting tear gassed, and it’s definitely worse than you could ever expect. Feeling the burning chemicals in your lungs, and the uncontrollable coughing and tears streaming down your face, it really is a horrid experience. I was rummaging through Nader’s bag in a panic trying to get our salt but I couldn’t find it. Luckily, everyone around us was offering us salt, and as soon as Nader got some, I licked it right off his palm. I’d really never been so desperate to eat salt before.
The crowd had spread by this point and the smoke had gone so I sat myself down on the side of the road, trying to gather myself. As soon as I was somewhat calm, I turned to look towards Dataran, and two or three more gas canisters came hurtling towards us. We started running again down the side street and wondered what the hell they were doing shooting at us when most of the crowd had already dispersed.
More gas chased us down the side street towards Masjid India (one even landing in front of the little police station there), but everyone around us was calm and had somewhat recovered albeit pissed off at this point. The biggest of men had tears streaming down their faces, and others were throwing up at the side of the street. People found hoses and poured water into the bottles and towels of everyone passing by. Many, many people offered us salt, even when we were obviously fine. It really was a time when all of our shallow concerns flew out the window and it was all about helping the person in need next to you, whoever they may be. It was a time when the ONLY thing that mattered was that we were there for each other, not only as Malaysians, but as human beings, and it was a truly amazing thing to witness. Nader, who is a foreigner, commented how helpful everyone was, and how it was truly humanity at its best.
Now, I can’t comment about what happened at the barrier, I couldn’t see it. That wasn’t part of the program, and in fact the plan was to NOT break the barricade. So yes, I agree that was wrong, and the people who pushed through crossed a line. It gave the police justification to start firing (although they should’ve let us use Dataran in the first damn place). But thinking about it now, it would’ve made a hell lot more sense to fire the tear gas IN FRONT of the barrier to stop people from crossing it. Or hell, just fire the tear gas onto Dataran itself so no one would go there. But no, they fired directly into the packed crowd, triggering a very, very dangerous risk of a stampede. And yes, being in that crowd fearing for my life, I bloody well resent them for it.
But I don’t want to dwell on the bad. The fact is, the rally was a major success, let’s not forget that. I’d say there were 100 thousand people there, easy. And those are numbers you cannot ignore (PDRM got some great aerial shots that speak for themselves). Many people I spoke to on the street agreed. The rally was a success and that’s something we could be proud of. You can’t ignore the fact that almost every demographic of Malaysian was there. I heard accents from almost every part of the country. I’d never sung Negaraku so many times in the span of a few hours. These people truly love and want the best for their country. Don’t begrudge the 99% for the actions of the 1% who were there. Just like we shouldn’t begrudge the majority of the police force who were just following orders and didn’t act like thugs. Their orders come from up top anyways.
So now, when the discrediting spin of the rally dies down in the mainstream media, we will see what real changes take place, if any. Because if the PM hasn’t noticed, the crowd at these rallies keeps growing. The number of people there yesterday, which I stress again, was an enormous number of people, is something you cannot ignore. And something you cannot delete from our collective memories. With the amount of videos and pictures on the internet, It’s already written in our history books, never to be forgotten. And that was just Kuala Lumpur, not including Global Bersih at large.
A free and fair election is the most basic necessity of a so-called democracy. If a crowd that big was moved to the streets for something so basic, then how can anyone in power claim that Malaysia is democratic? The people I talked to on the street were very clear about that. They just want their right to fairly choose who leads them. Enough with the web of lies. The rakyat are not stupid. And as demonstrated so awesomely yesterday, the rakyat are powerful. It is only up to those in power to acknowledge that, or stay in their deluded bubbles that will surely burst in their faces soon, if it hasn’t already.
