Archive - 29 April 2012

The home minister also hopes news that journalists were arrested during the rally for clean and fair elections is ‘not true’.

The government's official news agency gives a different account of what two journalists said after they met PM.

‘A country like Pakistan has introduced electronic voting long ago,’ says Pakistani senator Mir Hasil Khan Bizenjo.

UPDATED 7.45PM The PM allegedly whispered ‘I apologise for what has happened’ in the ear of Radzi Razak.

Ibrahim Ali says said there are elements out there who were trying to play havoc with Article 153 of the constitution.

Penang will be exposed to strong quakes and tsunami threat, in the event of a strong earthquake occurring in neighbouring countries.

UPDATED 8.25PM The police personnel who drove a car into several protesters says he was semi-conscious at the time as had lost a lot of blood.

UPDATED 7.20PM The home minister says the confiscation of memory cards and cameras belonging to newsmen at Bersih 3.0 was in line with police SOP. [VIDEO INSIDE]

UPDATED 7.30PM S Ambiga reminds the government that 250,000 in KL and more elsewhere demand concrete reforms, incidents aside.

UPDATED 7.10PM Had the police not fired tear gas, there would not have been acts of violence by anyone, says S Ambiga.

UPDATED 6.05PM The woman says a female police officer punched her as she was pushed into a police van.

An Australian senator is appalled that television news gave more prominence to the PM enjoying banana fritters than Bersih 3.0.

Another accident also took place near Sogo, where a motorcyclist was hit by a policeman on a motorcycle, says a witness. [VIDEOS INSIDE]

By many accounts, the turning point was when the northern barricade near Sultan Abdul Samad building was breached.

Mohd Haijan Omar, who was observing the rally for Lawyers for Liberty, says officers charged at him at Jalan Tun HS Lee.

UPDATED 2.36PM Bar veep differs with the home minister’s assessment of the cops, saying they were ‘immature’.

UPDATED 3.45PM ‘They pulled off my media tag and kicked it away. I was afraid they would arrest me,’ says Merdeka Review's Chen Shaua Fui.

Police say all of them arrested during the Bersih demonstration, including the PKR leader, have been freed.

UPDATED 4PM Muhyiddin pins the blame for yesterday’s fracas on Bersih for not having accepted the stadium offer.

They claim that as a result of the activities, residents suffered loss of their source of water, worsening their agricultural yield.

Selangor PAS Youth says Umno-BN cannot ‘shirk responsibility' for the police violence that erupted at the end of yesterday's peaceful rally.

The appoinment of its sec-gen Teng Chang Yeow as Penang BN chief has changed the political battleground in the state.

Two newspapers say the duo had ‘instigated’ the crowd to breach the court order barring them from the Dataran.

They did not mean setting up committees only to dismiss crucial issues, which have contributed to the BN’s grip on power.

UPDATED 1.35PM Its sec-gen V Anbalagan calls on the IGP to explain why journalists were apparently targetted during the rally.

The crowd gathered outside Sogo Shopping Mall in Causeway Bay at 2pm, singing patriotic songs like ‘Negaraku’ and ‘Sejahtera Malaysia’.

About 600 mainly M'sian students demonstrate for free and fair elections in a peaceful and fuss-free atmosphere.

 

COMMENT The massive size and youth of the crowds at Bersih 3.0 bode ill for the BN at the 13th general election.

COMMENT Clean and proper elections, the very best that can be achieved in a messy and imperfect world, are necessary in any modern democracy.

COMMENT It was the night before the Bersih 3.0 storm and I was wandering around Dataran Merdeka attempting to discover...

FREE YOURSAY 'Most people were dispersing. The duty of the police was crowd control and not to turn aggressors as they did....'