(Malaysiakini down at time of writing. They should get better backup servers)

I just got back home.

The police were horrible.

The police and whoever is pulling their accursed strings.

I’m a little too agitated to either write fully about what happened or upload all my pictures right now. But I’ll try to asap.

In the meantime, let me relate the core of my experience.

When I arrived near the Ampang LRT station on foot, things were very subdued. The crowds had been dispersed violently earlier.

I waited for quite a while, before some Hindraf leaders finally showed up.

They spoke to the crowd for a while, signalling their peaceful intentions to hand over the memorandum.

Then they decided to move on towards the British High Comm.

Only a few field force police were standing in the line separating the marchers from the building.

I think everyone was caught unprepared, especially after the cops had been just chilling for so long.

Confusion ensued, and our ever nervous cops suddenly got really scared and trigger happy.

That’s when they fired volley after volley of tear gas.

 

I was near the front, and inexperienced with tear gas, so it caught me a little unawares.

Oh by God it hurt.

I thought I was going to suffocate.

It was all I could do to walk slowly away with the fleeing crowd. I wasn’t sure if there’d be FRU beating us from behind as we left.

A summary of what followed: the cops successfully divided the crowd into various parts of the city.

They allowed the part of the crowds I was with to just hang around for a while. We weren’t doing anything, just sitting there feeling angry and pretty helpless.

Soon after though, they started sending in cops.

They sent in two types. The FRU with their tear gas, and these plainclothes guys (who knows if there were even cops), who were these real arrogant bastards that were screaming at everyone in their “Kau nak kurang ajar hah?! Aku tunjuk kau nanti!” kind of attitude.

Like they were such bad asses. Really getting in your face with their self-righteous anger.

The situation could have gotten very tense and very racial very fast.

To their credit, the many insulted Indians in the crowd did not take to violence. They could only vent through the occasional shouting and cursing.

When they really wanted to move us, they started firing tear gas.

I have to say that I ran.

That shit really, really burnt.

What was happening was this: they’d push us back aggressively with their tear gas and rabid barking strangers, then once we were gathered some distance away, they’d leave us be for a while.

Then, pretty much without warning, they would repeat the process.

It was really infuriating.

We weren’t doing jack shit, but they insisted on gassing us half to death and screaming and yelling.

It was really, really depressing, that all we could do was fall back and try to regroup.

They repeated this process at intervals until they had pushed us all the way to about the National Library.

I think it was about there that the cops seemed to have laid off. I hung around for a while, but it looks like they had succeeded in dispersing most of us.

I took a cab home.

*

They pushed, we fell back, they pushed, we fell back.

One day, this will have to stop.

I’ll do the rest of the pictures and everything else when I can. There’s a lot to tell.

Tags-eyewitness

Tags: eyewitness by Nathaniel Tan
90 Comments »

Finally made it down to Klang.

Cops playing usual game: arrest in Bangsar, detain in Shah Alam, charge in Klang, imprison in Sg. Buloh :|

Was driving in Shah Alam, when Li Tsin (who did an excellent job reporting for Malaysiakini!) said it’s near SK Klang, I was like… ?!?! :P :)

But it was a massive rally.

Certainly upwards of 2k, and this isn’t even Sunday yet.

I’m glad the 2 got out (the 3rd is refusing to come out in protest. I might have heard ‘hunger strike’ somewhere), and it was good to see Uthayakumar again.

A bit too early in the morning to write at length, but I really must note the fiery passion and groundswell you could feel in the crowd.

The Indian community is pissed off, and they’re not taking it lying down any more.

Samy’s panties are in a knot: the media campaign in the NST is massive.

No less than four pages dedicated to demonizing Sunday.

Looks like a) Bersih really shook them up, b) Samy/MIC’s days are numbered.

I mean, I think it’s the first bloody time four pages were ever dedicated to anything Indian :P

Too little, too late.

Tags-Ethnicity, eyewitness

Tags: eyewitness, Ethnicity by Nathaniel Tan
4 Comments »

Are we Opposition people but a bunch of hooligans? Lemme try to let the pics (from the full set of pics put up earlier; btw, politikus hosts all these pics, thanks!!) do the talking.

(Pics from door-to-door campaigning and handsome/pretty party people chronicled below )

We just started off as a friendly, well-supported, walk - stopping to say hi to some folks:

 

 

 

Then, because the organisers were useless, once we reached the top of the hill, we found ourselves having to wade through a mass of BN supporters, who had completely blocked off the path:

 

 

We had to walk through some of those famous ‘Hardcore’/Scorpion Pemuda Klang flers:

 

 

They were at Machap too, remember?

 

 

The front guard of our procession went through, and I along with it, but then suddenly I turned back and was like: “Aik?? What happened to the rest of them?!” TS Khalid was still caught in the melee :( It seems Khairy himself was causing a ruckus and holding things up.

 

We couldn’t see much, everyone was struggling to get a shot:

 

 

 

Then this Pemuda Umno guy gave Shamsul Iskandar a hard time when he tried to get back to our leaders. I admired Sam’s (Shamsul) calm under fire, but this other guy kept yelling and was really agitated. Sam looks like he was trying to calm him down :P :)

 

 

It took an outrider to get those BN guys to do something as simple as make way for our candidate to get through. Can you imagine DS Wan Azizah having to be in the middle of all this? >:( And were they trying to make us arrive too late at the polling station?

 

 

In the end however, despite the harassment, our level heads and Justice/Keadilan prevailed, and Tan Sri made it through safely :)

 

 

Sadly, this period of calm was short lived. These FRU guys, under goodness knows what orders, refused to let Sam and DS Wan Azizah through to the polling station - ?!?!

 

 

These much better shots are from Freelunch:

 

(That’s Kak Wan in the pink tudung - being pushed into riot police! >:( )

 

 

And this cowboy started pointing his tear gas launcher around :| Coulda killed somebody!

 

 

On the other end, our supporters were being heckled by our Hardcore Klang friends (Look for the scorpion. I stupidly missed a photo-opp of one of them making particularly lewd gestures, sigh..)

 

 

who were then replaced by these ‘i’m trying damn hard to look scary you mofos, so err.. be scared! quick!’ special branch flers. Round Brown perhaps? :P :)

 

 

By popular demand, here are a few more Khairy shots. Please don’t associate him with fellow Oxfordian Tony Pua, who is a much better man :)

 

 

 

Semangat wei :) I’m almost as scared as those SB flers :)

 

This is a good a point as any to talk about DS Hishamuddin’s: PKR likes to provoke, says Hisham

 

Only one appropriate response to that, really:

 

 

Then there was the throwing stuff incident. Any accusations that PKR was responsible for that fracas are absolutely baseless. But I do agree that the entire altercation was shameful and regrettable. There’s no way of telling if it wasn’t some SB’s or undercover agents who started the whole thing.

 

It was still raining then, but afterwards, the sun came up and things calmed down again. Most of us just hung out and waited for the nomination to be announced:

 

 

Here’s Tian in his wet t-shirt contest :)

 

 

Nominees were announced, people were happy, and we started the trek back home without incident:

 

 

More warm PKR faces below :)

 

[Read more →]

Tags-eyewitness, Malaysian Politics

Tags: eyewitness, Malaysian Politics by Nathaniel Tan
3 Comments »

Exhausted!

But here’s my full picture collection of Ijok Nomination Day, and a little write-up I did. No energy to do a selection even, except of course for:

 

 

 

 

Tags-eyewitness, Malaysian Politics

Tags: eyewitness, Malaysian Politics by Nathaniel Tan
23 Comments »

Dunia (dan majlis) mengalu-alukan kedatangan Soon Li Tsin aka politikus yang kini telah mendedahkan keindahannya! :D

I’m weally pwoud of Li Tsin’s decision to bravely step into the world of un-anonymous blogging. Goodness knows it can be hard out here, but we’re behind you every step of the way!! <3

*

See, now I don’t have to agonize and think whether to say I went to WP’s Malam KeADILan last night with politikus or Li Tsin, hehe :) Elanor, on the other hand… hehehe :)

The dinner went well - I think Li Tsin’s story carried an appropriate focus, it was the first time I had ever seen or heard a Malaysian politician really take the bull by the horns and tackle the subject of religion.

DS Anwar’s point was simple, and what I’ve always believed - burying whatever religious problems there are in this country will cause a rot that will poison us all; we need to talk about it like the mature adults that we are. It’s not like mutual understanding and consensus/compromise is so hard to achieve - that’s really just BN propaganda, don’t buy into it!!

DS Anwar’s real fun to listen to too, try it sometime if you haven’t :) For one thing, he does a mean imitation of the Cina Malay accent, hehe. Check out the full gist of his speech (thanks Remy! :)

Having finally figured out how to embed videos, Tian’s speech is in the post below :) I understand that DS Anwar’s one is being worked on as we speak/type :)

*

Li Tsin’s and DS Anwar’s bravery is in sharp contrast to Dtk’s Zam (emulate Singapore?? eww) and Shaziman:

“The plan to register bloggers is merely to assess the situation and keep track on how many bloggers there are in the country and on the information provided by them.”

Errrr, you can do that without us registering you know? Start with Google Reader.

Sigh, in terms of their grasp of technology, these flers are bringing a knife to a gunfight..

*

Ooh, BUM gathering! :)

*

Lastly, quick and special thanks to the eloquent Alexis and Jeff! :) And yes, please help light the darkness - candles, (spiritual) flamethrowers, handphone-torchlights, all welcome :) Hidup politikus! :D

Tags-eyewitness, little notes, Malaysian Politics, Religious Affairs

Tags: little notes, eyewitness, Religious Affairs, Malaysian Politics by Nathaniel Tan
3 Comments »

Malaysiakini:

Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak today stressed that Barisan Nasional (BN) component parties have always respected the law and do not create disturbances.

He also suggested that Tuesday’s fracas in Machap could have been sparked off by DAP supporters.

“Those who were involved in the scuffle had stated that they were terribly provoked by DAP supporters who insulted and hurt their feelings,” he was quoted as saying by Bernama.

Yes ar? Then why is it that no one from BN was hurt, while the DAP supporters ended up looking like:

Taunting is silly - and I heard some serious taunts that day. But violence crosses a line. If you can’t control your violent tendencies, what place do you have in society?

On the MIC Youth note, while walking back with them:

I had the opportunity to listen to their chants. While PKR yells things like “Reformasi!” and “Hidup Rakyat!”, I regret to say that MIC Youth was confined to:

“Boo panjang!”

“booooooooo”

“Boo pendek!”

“boo!”

(repeat)

No seriously, this was their call and answer shouting. This is the height of BN political discourse :|

On the DS Najib note:

Is it just me, or does DS have like the lamest, most insincere, limpest handshake ever? Don’t they teach firm handshakes in politician school?

Still, don’t wanna piss him off. No idea what would happenc4….

Boys and girls, don’t think I’m here to hantam Indians and Malays. More importantly, don’t forget that a vote for Gerakan/MCA/MIC is nothing more than a vote for a lapbitch that props up its master, takes beatings from him, and is always back to beg for more.

Tags-eyewitness, Malaysian Politics

Tags: eyewitness, Malaysian Politics by Nathaniel Tan
1 Comment »

I, newcomer to Malaysian politics, had never seen so many rakyat biasa passionate about politics in one place before!

Waking up at 5am was no damn fun, thank all things good that Li Tsin was able to accompany me down <3 :)

Our first adventure was bumping into Dtk Tan Chai Ho at a rest stop! I wouldn’t have recognised myself him of course :)

Relief driver Li Tsin rolled down the window, called out to him, and asked if we could follow his car (so we wouldn’t get lost). He said “Can, can..”

Five minutes later, he was nowhere in sight. His driver not a big believer in speed limits apparently - Li Tsin eyeballed his speed at *at least* 140kmh. Sked of us meh? Sigh, BN politicians and their promises..

We caught up with the Malaysiakini crew and had breakfast with them, then headed on up.

Here begins the photo collection. I didn’t go crazy this time, only 90 pics, have a look at the whole set if you can :)

The sight that greeted me:

Note the big ass BN balloon, top corner. Okla, I admit I was a little jealous of the balloon :)

We arrived before the DAP crew, but they came soon after, with this wheelchair bound gentleman bravely leading the way.

He was followed by the DAP front line, candidate, YB’s and all (*applause*)

And then the rank and file (can you spot the pkr flags? hehe)

Yah, we certainly had a visible presence. Lotsa PKR Melaka people were there, and a number came down from KL and other places as well.

Ginie Lim, newest kid on the blogging block, and one of the names tossed around when PKR was considering contesting the Machap seat - on the front lines, as always:

Shamsul Iskandar, acting keADILan Youth Chief, and Jasin Division Chief not far behind:

Well, after the big shots went in to do the paperwork, the rest of us chilled outside and waited.

I can’t resist this totally cute picture of DAP’s Liew Chin Tong (don’t angry me! we love you Chin Tong! :) The lucky DAP candidate had all this women waiting to give him roses when he came out - roses and rockets appear to be a popular match :)

Muhibbah pictures abound :D I expect many of them to frontpage the Rocket :)

 

 

Li Tsin had the presence of mind to say: let’s look at the BN side!

Don’t have much pictures here, but I must comment on how the BN team seemed to be made out of so many disparate components/uniforms - Youth wings here, Puteri wings there, “NGOs”.. Not the picture of unity, I’d venture.

I almost giggled when I saw the Puteri Umno posse - tons of makeup, pink everywhere, highlighted hair (perhaps blonde would’ve been the appropriate colour).

Oh okok, I confess! I did giggle… :) No pics tho :( I sked if I took picture, perasaan wait…

Ah, but they were harmless. The same could not be said of these guys:

How much more samseng can a group of boys look? More pics of them would’ve been good, but I somehow didn’t feel like standing in front of those flers with my camera, clicking away :P

The blackshirts with the scorpion are Pemuda Umno Klang. The back of their t-shirt says “Hardcore” :|

Anyone care to venture a guess as to what ’cause’ these young chaps were there $truggling for?

Another celeb: Muhammad Taib, aka creepy guy -

Well, then the announcement was ready to be made around 11am, which made people quite excited. For Opposition means this:

For BN, means this:

As you can surmise, I was pretty close to these guys. Samseng doesn’t begin to describe their behaviour. The words hooligans, ruffians, etc, come to mind as well. The above is just a selection, please do view the whole lot.

I’m reminded once again: there are many benefit$ to be gleamed from getting involved with BN parties. I can only think of one reason to be in the Opposition - principles. Why else put up with being constantly harassed by samsengs?

Was it all for show? Oh no. Malaysiakini:

Two police reports have been lodged against MIC Youth chief S Vigneswaran and the wing’s members for allegedly assaulting an opposition party’s supporters and a photographer, while a third report alleged the use of abusive language against a journalist outside the Machap nomination centre today.

DAP Negri Sembilan members K Kannis, 42, and S Vijayan, 24, sustained injuries on their head and face in the incident and were taken to a hospital for a medical examination.

In the first police report lodged by Kannis, the complainant said he and Vijayan was beaten up by MIC brigade members wielding bricks and the MIC party flag-stick at about 11.45am, after the nomination process ended.

>:(

My cousin, who was apparently about a meter away from the scene, actually said the injuries were worse than what could be seen in the Malaysiakini pics :(

Perhaps a greater police presence would’ve helped? But noooo, it’s ok to outnumber and bully peaceful protestors, but God forbid we should get in the way of MIC gangsters. Sigh.

*

Ok, I’m exhausted from a long day, so won’t reflect too much here and now. More thoughts/reflections later perhaps. Thanks once again to the lovely Li Tsin for truly life-saving company - wasn’t the Ayer Keroh Restoran Jejantas fun?! :)

Tags-eyewitness, Malaysian Politics

Tags: eyewitness, Malaysian Politics by Nathaniel Tan
4 Comments »