Tear gas in Tung Shin a matter of perception: Soi Lek

MCA president Chua Soi Lek believes that the truth of the pictures and videos of alleged police brutality during the July 9 Bersih 2.0 rally for clean and fair elections, lies in the eye of the beholder.

“Pictures do not convey the entire meaning,” he was reported to have said by MCA Online, at a press conference at the party headquarters in Kuala Lumpur.

    

He was commenting on widely-distributed evidence of photographs and videos of police spraying chemically-laced water and shooting tear gas canisters into the Tung Shing Hospital in Jalan Pudu.

Chua ( right ) maintained that different angles of a picture can tell a different story.

“If they want to make you look bad, they can,” said the party chief.

He explained that media can portray different angles of a person depending on which side it favours, alluding that this includes how the story of what happened during the rally was told.

“We hold to the reports by the police and the hospital board, and the hospital board members consist of respected businesspersons, retired people or active people who are not interested in taking sides,” said Chua.

He said that the Tung Shin board had clarified that no tear gas were fired into the hospital administration building, saying that it instead landed at a nearby carpark.

“But from where the picture is shot (it would appear that it landed in the hospital),” he said, explaining away as an optical illusion the photos widely circulated on the Internet.

MCA deputy president Liow Tiong Lai, who was also at the press conference, said that the hospital’s  board members confirmed Chua’s optical illusion theory, relating how they came out with that statement after a meeting with him yesterday.  

                                        

“The board had conducted an internal inquiry and noted that no tear gas was fired into the hospital. I don’t see of any other problem. The police will investigate,” he added.

‘We were not there’

Chua instead blamed protesters, claiming that they endangered patients in the hospital by rushing into the building.

He also defended police actions on hospital grounds as police were compelled to react against the street demonstrations in order to ensure the security of the hospital patients.

“Imagine if you had parents inside the hospitals, and the demonstrators rushed into the hospital. What would your reaction be? Would you not want the police to take action to ensure the safety of your parents?” said Chua.

The MCA president stressed that it is the duty of the police to ensure safety and security, though he warned that police should not use unwarranted and excessive action to do so.

However, when asked whether the police used excessive force during the Tung Shin incident, he admitted that he was in no position to comment on events he himself did not observe it.

“I am not sure because we were not there. There were conflicting reports,” he said.

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