YOURSAY 'When did we have 250,000 Malaysians of different ages, races, religions and cultures stand for a cause?'
Think_Act_Live_Now:
I can confirm that the police were trigger-happy. I was at the side of Central Market around 4pm and there were only a few people on the road standing around and catching their breath when all of a sudden the police fired two or three tear-gas canisters our way.
It was completely uncalled for... no crowd, no violence, just people standing around. One person was so shocked and caught unawares that he jumped and fell.
Why did they fire at us? Till now I am still scratching my head. My only conclusion was that they thought they had been given the green light to fire tear gas at the crowd and they just did it for fun.
It is really sad because I believe 99 percent of Bersih supporters were peaceful and were there to show their support for clean and fair elections. The atmosphere was great.
Since when did we have 250,000 Malaysians of different ages, races, religions and cultures stand together, shoulder to shoulder, for a cause?
And for this, the police fired on us... What a shame!
Anonymous #55961902: In the first place, Bersih 3.0 should have been given the space at Dataran Merdeka to hold the rally.
I strongly believe there wouldn't be any incidents had the authority granted them the space. When they fenced up the whole Dataran Merdeka they indirectly forced the crowd to take to the streets.
The crowd was well-behaved until some idiots purposely started to cause trouble when the crowd was in the midst of dispersing. The police then started to shoot tear gas and chemical-laced water.
This was done on purpose to make as if the rally was out of controlled and badly organised. If it was so, it could have happened earlier not until the crowd was dispersing.
In my opinion, it was unnecessary for the police to act against peace-loving and law-abiding citizens.
Freemsia: A group of friends of mine who were nearby Dataran Merdeka, near HSBC, saw a small group of Special Branch police officers on motorbikes.
They got off their bikes and changed into yellow Bersih T-shirts and blended into the crowd. Agents of sabotage? I am starting to think so.
Wira: There was no police presence in Penang. The 10,000 crowd dispersed peacefully after being given the signal to go home, 50 minutes after the event started.
Actually it was a non-event. It could have been so in Kuala Lumpur if the stupidity hadn't got into those morons in Putrajaya.
HERO325: Bersih is actually not demanding fair and free elections. These people are demanding for a electoral system to ensure Pakatan Rakyat wins the next general election.
That's why Bersih is never satisfied with whatever reforms put in place. They want to make sure that Pakatan can win. Otherwise, it's not fair.
Changed: Malaysian of all races, Malay, Chinese, Indians and others who attended the Bersih 3.0 on Saturday should all be proud of themselves. It was a carnival-like affair.
The food stalls and restaurants were doing a roaring business. It was very well-controlled. They sat when told to sit. They marched when told to march. We are talking of 250,000 or more of well-behaved citizens. Pictures were taken with the police too.
All went well till some idiots gave the order to fire tear gas and water cannon. Why? Learning from past experience, the kids were only armed with drinking water, salt, goggles and towels for fear of trigger-happy goons.
It was madness and a complete over-reaction by the police. Who gave the orders?
'Dataran barrier breach no excuse for use of force'
Lim Chong Leong: Umno needed to paint Bersih in a bad light and staged a breach of the barricade to justify their use of force.
The crowd was already dispersing, the police should have lifted the barricades anyway, but that would have resulted in Bersih going away 'winning' the rally showing that they can be peaceful, setting the stage for the next protest because there will be no reforms anyway from the Election Commission and PM Najib Razak.
So now, after the staged ‘wayang' breach, Bersih leaders can be arrested if they call for the next sit-in.
Stried: The police in first place did not care for the safety of the people. If you noticed they used razor-wire instead of barbed wire. It was meant to cut the protestors.
Artchan: Umno internal politics was at work. They wanted to sabotage Najib's transformation and reforms programmes and the Umno warlords took this as the opportunity to inflict damage.
And what could Najib do after the fact. He has to support the police action. For him to dissociate himself from the police brutality would only confirm that he has lost control.
Najib is a lame duck in Umno. He has no supporters.
Darthram: What I don't understand is, why did the police not apprehend those few that had breached the barricade? There were more than enough of them to detain the intruders. Instead the police did nothing.
The police then formed a line at the breach to prevent others from coming then. The line was only for few seconds before the police ran away.
At this point, there was more than enough police at the line to keep Dataran closed. As the police ran, more people surged forward to breach the barricade as they thought that the Dataran was open.
Ferdtan: We should be thankful that not even more serious casualties were reported other than the police car accident. When the police fired tear gas at such a huge crowd, packed tightly, a stampede may have occurred.
The majority of the protestors were peaceful and calm. It is very irresponsible for the police to use such dangerous tactics to disperse the crowd.
It is like using a hammer to whack a fly. Why can't the police and the unruly so-called ‘Bersih protesters' let the rally end peacefully at the tail-end of the protest?
Why the provocation at the last minute when we were there for many hours without any ugly incidents? Or was the script not supposed to end it that way - peacefully?
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