Journalists recount racial slurs, abuse at red shirt rally
The incident in which a Malaysiakini reporter was called a ‘ Cina gila babi ’ (crazy Chinese pig) at the Himpunan Rakyat Bersatu rally - though widely reported - was far from the only incident faced by media practitioners posted to cover the rally that day.
Abuses - racial or otherwise - had been hurled towards journalists and camerapersons - primarily at the Petaling Street area throughout the standoff between protesters and the police, especially as it escalated to violence.
The incident in which a Malaysiakini reporter was called a ‘ Cina gila babi ’ (crazy Chinese pig) at the Himpunan Rakyat Bersatu rally - though widely reported - was far from the only incident faced by media practitioners posted to cover the rally that day.
Abuses - racial or otherwise - had been hurled towards journalists and camerapersons - primarily at the Petaling Street area throughout the standoff between protesters and the police, especially as it escalated to violence.
A reporter for a mainstream newspaper took to Facebook on the evening of the rally to vent her thoughts after facing one such incident.
“Someone called me ‘ bangsat Cina ’ (Chinese bastard). But my father is Mamak (Indian Muslim) and my mother is Malay. If you want to discriminate, at the very least be accurate about it.
“It's one thing to be an ass****, but being an ignorant ass**** is just sad,” she said.
Speaking to Malaysiakini yesterday on condition of anonymity, she said she did not even realise it at the time because she did not hear it herself.
She was on the phone at the time of the incident, and found out only when her colleague came up to her and told her about it.
She said her colleague had also been called ‘keling’ , a derogatory term for Indians.
Hostile to media
Apart from this, she said that the protesters were also constantly heckling media personnel - regardless of their ethnic background - and accusing them of spinning news.
“Media go away!”, “Media don’t spin!”, “Don’t edit pictures”, “No need to write your stories, you would just spin it anyway,” were among the heckles.
In addition, she said there had also been catcalls and jeers towards women in the area by the protesters, who were predominantly men.
Another reporter, who also works in the mainstream press, claimed that she was physically harassed by one of the protesters.
She said that as water bottles and other projectiles were being hurled at about 4.50pm, she took out her phone and began to film herself talking about the situation around her but a protester grabbed her backpack as she was recording.
“He held onto my backpack and literally pulled me around as I was doing my standupper, shouting ‘Lies! Lies! She is lying!’ He just went on like that,” she told Malaysiakini yesterday.
She also identified the culprit as the same person who had verbally abused the Malaysiakini reporter.
Gas masks spark anger
In addition to this, she said she was also called ‘keling bangsat’ during the standoff, as well as other racial epithets.
After violence broke out and the Federal Reserve Unit (FRU) had unleashed its water cannon on the protesters at around 5pm, two of the reporters accompanying her had donned gas masks in anticipation of tear gas salvos from the police.
Although no tear gas canister was fired during throughout the day, their move prompted more verbal abuse.
She said that a protester came up to them and accused them of trying to create a ‘wrong perception’ of the rally by wearing the gas masks, although no tear gas was used.
“Eventually he went off, but he came to pick a fight again,” she said, before listing some of the expletives hurled until the protester was told off by the reporters.
Apart from the incidents above which happened at Petaling Street, a journalist from Astro AEC and his cameraman were escorted away from the crowd by the police at Jalan Conlay, after the protesters got upset with their questions.
They were reportedly upset when the reporter asked them to cite examples of incidents in which Malays had been insulted.
When contacted yesterday, however, a spokesperson for Astro AEC declined to comment on the incident that took place at around 12.40pm.
At the end of the day on Sept 16, two police personnel were injured during the scuffles at Petaling Street and two men were arrested.
‘Attack against media unacceptable’
The rest of the rally, which was centred at Padang Merbok, was not violent and relatively uneventful.
Following the rally, the journalist group Gerakan Media Marah (Geramm) issued a statement condemning the harassment against media personnel.
“At least five media personnel were subjected to racial slurs and harassed by the ‘red shirt’ rally participants […] Crowds also reportedly threatened media personnel during the standoff (at Petaling Street), hurling sexually tinged words, threats, racial slurs, and outright vulgar words.
“Aside from the verbal harassment, there were unconfirmed reports of a Chinese photographer who was kicked by a protester.
“Geramm would like to stress that such attacks against the media is an unacceptable act, especially in these cases where it was purely based on the person’s race, religion, or gender,” it said in a statement.
Sungai Besar Umno division leader Jamal Md Yunos ( above ) has blamed social media for painting a bad picture of their gathering, and insisted that the rally-goers are not racist.
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