Klang Valley folks should have noticed the unusual jam in and around KL for the past 2 days. Police has set up roadblocks, albeit prematurely, to cope with the potential confrontation before the rally. Seems like they has just up their ante by arresting the leaders of Hindraf.

About Hindraf and the rally

Not many Malaysians beside the Hindu community are paying attention to Hindraf… that’s a sad fact. After 50 years of independence, Malaysians are not giving much damn about the welfare of other races. The irony thing is… the arrest and roadblocks actually helped spreading Hindraf’s movement.

Hindraf is planning a gathering outside of British High Commission at Jalan Ampang on Sunday to submit a petition with 100,000 signatures to Queen Elizabeth II to appoint a Queen’s Counsel to represent the Indian community in a class action suit against the British government for bringing Indians as labourers to the then Malaya and thereafter exploiting them.

The suit, filed at the Royal Courts of Justice in London by Hindraf chief P. Wathyamoorthy in August, sought compensation of up to US$4 trillion (RM13.5 trillion), or US$1 million (RM3.4 million) for every Indian in Malaysia.

The petition and suit might sound ridiculous; people have been teasing the real motive behind the rally. Regardless, I am not going to question the possible personal agenda in Hindraf organization… I chose to believe that they want to seek international (and Malaysians’) attention on the problem the Indian society is facing in Malaysia, and that the suit is just a gimmick to get attention.

I am not a big fan of public rally or demonstration, but I am not going to deny the rights of others to voice their thoughts. Besides, who would want to bath under the torching sun or soak in the rain (and possibly polices’ tear gas and water cannon) to demonstrate if their voices are heard in a more comfortable way? People go to the streets because they don’t have much choice, not for fun.

For whatever cause it is… Don’t bring minors to a demonstration. One thing that I absolute distaste during the BERSIH rally is seeing minors involved.

Street demo is always unpredictable; the crowd might go wild, or the police might become irrational in handling situations. Violent confrontation might happen… it’s not safe to bring your young children to a demo. Forget about education from young age, that’s bull sh!t… there are better ways teaching children about democracy, human rights or whatever.

3 groups lodge reports against blogger (NST)

Three police reports were lodged against blogger Jeff Ooi for allegedly defaming the country, government and police force.

The reports were lodged by the Malaysian Islamic Consumers Association, Malaysian Indian Muslim Congress and Pertubuhan Seni Silat Ikatan Kalam Malaysia against a statement issued by Ooi to an Al Jazeera reporter. The statement was allegedly broadcast on YouTube following an illegal gathering on Nov 10 organised by a coalition of opposition parties and non-governmental organisations calling itself Bersih.

The police reports were lodged at the Sentul police headquarters yesterday about 4.30pm.

The complainants want Ooi to be investigated, alleging that the interview given to Al Jazeera not only tarnished the image of the country but was also seditious and caused racial tension.

Ooi is also alleged to have given inaccurate information to Al Jazeera in stating that the police used unnecessary force in dispersing the demonstrators.

[The videos in questions... video 1 & video 2]

Police report lodged against Malaysia Today, Raja Petra (Thestar)

A businessman has lodged a police report against web portal Malaysia Today and its owner Raja Petra Kamaruddin for an article in the site which he alleged could cause disunity.

Noor Hisham Yusoh, 33, lodged the report at the Brickfields police station at about 7.30pm yesterday accompanied by seven other friends urging the authorities to carry out investigations into the article.

He said the article headlined “What the eye does not see” by Raja Petra had elements of instigation.

“As a Malaysian citizen, I think that his accusations are serious and can convince a lot of people in Malaysia that the country is not peaceful anymore,” he said, adding that the article could make the situation worse.

Noor Hisham from Bukit Subang said he decided to lodge the report after having a discussion with his friends who agreed that the article could cause disunity in the country.

“We are living in a very prosperous country and we do not want such an article to cause any problem,” he said.

Responses from Jeff and Raja Petra…

Jeff: ZAM, Al-Jazeera & police reports against Jeff Ooi
Raja Petra: I am greatly offended

Thoughts from other bloggers (and commentors)…

Police report against Malaysia Today, again
3 lodge police report against Jeff Ooi
Police Report lodged against Jeff for Al-Jazeera Interview
Kimma Lodges Police Report Against Jeff Ooi
Another Frivolous Police Report Filed Against RPK and Malaysia Today
Jeff Ooi implicated for defamation & Sedition
Police reports lodged against 2 bloggers
RPK, Government and the Army

I applaud the protesters’ spirit to convey their thoughts;
I condemn police’s action to use tear gas and water cannons on the protesters;
I hope that the Election Commission (EC) could be more independent;
I wish that the flaws in our electoral system could be minimized.

So why am I still not a supporter of the BERSIH rally?

EC is not our main concern

EC might be favouring our BN government in policies and having double standards when implementing certain things, but I still believe that we have a decent electoral system.

I doubt that there is any election in the world that is 100% clean, and I believe that our election is not that bad.

The main reason for BN’s dominance in the 2004 election is not the unfairness in election or the flaws in EC… it’s because we don’t have a strong enough opposition party (or alliance).

The opposition parties need to buck up their reputation, attract more quality members, and think of a way to form a strong alliance against the current BN government.

One thing that the BN government managed to do well all these years is to keep their alliances intact… it shows that Malaysians can work together regardless of occasional controversies. That is something that the oppositions are far from emulating.

The BERSIH march is a good lead to show bonding among opposition parties… work on it.

The involvement of political parties

It’s irony that both the success and failure of the rally are caused by the involvement of political parties.

Without them BERSIH would not have attracted such a large crowd; but their participation has made the rally a political driven protest instead of independent voices.

We may argue that BERSIH is formed by just 5 political parties and dozens of other NGOs… but fact is the political parties’ involvement will always grab the attention instead.

Read this, the headlines from Reuters’ reports…

Malaysia police move to foil opposition rally
Malaysia police use water cannon at Anwar rally

And here is an excerpt from AFP…

“Some 30,000 protesters eventually massed outside Malaysia’s royal palace, led by opposition leaders including dissident former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim, as they faced off against hundreds of riot police.”

We don’t need our biased local press to mislead the mass; even the independent news source would perceive that it’s an opposition rally… and I’m afraid that most bystanders would think of the same thing too.

It’s ok if the political parties take part in this kind of rally, but their leaders need to back off from taking the spotlight. Let the NGOs handle the case instead, it shows more credibility ahead of political agenda.

Just a simple challenge to BERSIH supporters… name me 3 non political organizations that took part in the BERSIH rally. I apologize in advance if you managed to name it straight away without references… I doubt that I would need to apologize to most of the protesters though.

Would BERSIH boycott the election?

Would BERSIH move on to boycott the election if their demands are not granted?

If they chose not to boycott the coming election… it shows that BERSIH still have faith with our electoral system ain’t so? If that’s the case, why started the rally at the first place?

The clash was sparked when police ordered the crowd of 500 people (some reported 750) gathering at Jalan Sultan Mahmud, close to Batu Buruk, to disperse peacefully at 10pm. The crowd was there to attend a talk organized by the Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (BERSIH), which was held without police’s permit.

Police officer fired live bullets

Terengganu police chief Senior Asst Comm Datuk Ayub Yaakob said that the policeman has fired one shot as act of self defence, while some PAS and PKR spokesmen claim that a few shots have been fired.

According to Malaysiakini, the alleged officer (a constable) had fired 4 shots.

This must be the first time I’ve heard that a live bullet is fired at a riot of this scale around the world. Anti-riot forces don’t use live bullets in general, for fear that it could injured (or killed) innocents during the crowd, for fear that the weapons might be seized by the rioters and cause other violence, and for other reasons.

To be fair… if I am the policeman that was under attack by group of people with sticks and stones during the riot, I would have pulled the trigger if I think my life was threatened. It could be an act of self defence, but under those chaoses… how sure was the police officer that he was firing at the right people? He could miss-fire and ended up wounding those bystanders around instead of those who attacked him.

That’s why… policemen should try their best to stay out of the crowd (especially when they are alone), and they shouldn’t carry guns into the crowd.

Why BERSIH didn’t cancel the gathering?

BERSIH has never given a permit to hold this particular gathering. There are accusations that the police was siding the BN government and offered unreasonable excuse to not issue the permits, which could be true… but that didn’t warrant BERSIH to hold the gathering as planned.

BERSIH organizers should know that police will interfere if the gathering carried on, and that there could be a clash between the crowd and the police. A (Chinese) report from Merdekareview said that the organizers had decided to cancel the gathering before the clash, but did they cancelled it soon enough, or just hours before the show?

If a law is stupid, you try to change it… if you can’t, you don’t break it. The gathering should be cancelled when permits were not granted, or alternatives should be sought.

Conspiracy Theories

PAS came out with a conspiracy theory that the riot was pre-planned by the police and UMNO…

Insiden berdarah di Pantai Batu Buruk 8 September lalu adalah hasil konspirasi jahat dan provokasi pihak polis yang dipergunakan oleh Umno-BN.

Maklumat tersebut disampaikan oleh Pesuruhjaya PAS Terengganu, Dato’ Mustapa Ali dalam satu sidang media yang diadakan di Pejabat Agung PAS Jalan Raja Laut tengahari ini.

Jelasnya, beliau mendapat maklumat daripada Adun Wakaf Mempelam, Abdul Wahid Endut yang menyatakan bahawa terdapat saksi yang telah menyatakan bahawa ia adalah ‘pre-plan’ yang melibatkan antara Setiausaha Politik Perdana Menteri, Senator Dato’ Wan Farid.

“Maklumat tersebut menyebutkan bahawa kira-kira jam 3 hingga 4 petang pada 8 September lalu, sewaktu satu kursus diadakan, seorang polis yang mengendalikan kursus tersebut telah menerima satu panggilan yang memaklumkan bahawa satu ‘huru-hara’ akan berlaku menjelang malam nanti di pantai Batu Buruk dan pegawai polis bertugas yang tidak beruniform dikehendaki memastikan identiti dengan memakai riben,” jelasnya.

Talk is easy Mr Mustapa Ali… prove it.

Update Sep 12 – BERSIH released their own media statement