Why I joined Bersih 3.0

By Kuok Yeow
May 03, 2012

KUALA LUMPUR, May 3 — I didn’t join Bersih 2.0 which fell on July 9 last year. I was at home comfortably following updates from various websites. My friend did ask me to go with him, but I rejected him, thinking nothing will change.

But I do support a clean and fair election. On that night, videos and pictures were been shared online and spreading very fast. Watching those pictures and videos made me feel fear, sad, and more on anger! On that night itself, I decided to join the next Bersih. 

(Out of so many videos of Bersih 2.0, there are two videos on youtube which stuck on my brain until now :

“Truth that Cannot be Covered”, uploaded by ahfusim [more than 1millions views], and

“Bersih 2.0- A Day to Remember!”, uploaded by kiangalaxy

A week before 28th April 2012 my friend, Adrian WhatsApped me to inform me about Bersih 3.0 and asked if I wanted to go. I agreed straight away.

428

Reached KL at 9.30am, went to my friend’s house to meet him. Then drove to KLCC as we planned to start from there, and had our breakfast while waiting for our friends. There were 8 of us in total, (me and 4 college friends, my friend’s colleague, another friend’s wife and also his mum!)

Started to walk at 11.20am and reached Masjid Jamek at about 11.51am. Half an hour walk! Throughout the whole journey, there were traffic police standing at almost every traffic light but they were just standing there doing nothing. It was the PAS Unit Amal who was there to ensure the crowd safety.  They also ensured the crowd used only one lane so the crowds did not block any vehicle using that road as well.

At Masjid Jamek the crowd started getting bigger and bigger.  Although there was a lot of people, I had never felt so safe and secured while walking in KL. The crowd sung the  Bersih song, chanting “Bersih! Bersih!”, “Hidup, hidup.. Hidup Rakyat”. It was like a carnival atmosphere. 

Everyone seemed so  happy and I could feel that everyone came with no violence.  Everyone started to find space to sit on the road along Jalan Tun Perak while waiting. I still remember there’s one police truck wanted to pass through the crowd, and Unit Amal asked the crowd to stand up and stand aside to let the truck pass.

Not long after that, like about 5 minutes, another police truck wanted to pass through the sitting crowd again. Someone shouted in BM “Everyone sit down! Don’t let the truck pass.” Luckily, Unit Amal people came and asked the crowd to stand up and let the truck pass and not to go against the law.

When the truck was about to pass by me, there were 4-5 guys who started to bang on the truck using their hands. Unit Amal shouted at them fiercely “Jangan buat macam itu! Jangan buat macam itu!” after that, the truck pass through the crowd safely.

Tear Gas

What I remember was, after Ambiga and Anwar arrived, we sung Negaraku. And both of them give speeches after that. I don’t know if anyone breached the barriers as I couldn’t see it from where I stood.

All I saw was a tear gas canister got stuck at the billboard under the LRT track bridge. Pop pop pop they went, smoke everywhere. Everyone start pushing. An auntie started to give out masks to everyone and she gave one to me. 

Lost my friend in the crowd, luckily my friend colleague was still in front of me. We ran towards Masjid Jamek LRT station but it was closed! And we were stuck at Jalan Melayu because another end of the road had been closed. 

The popping sound could still be heard.  The smoke made people around me cough, and their eyes red. For me, the smoke gave me a serious runny nose.

And my heart was pumping abnormally, having a little shortness of breath and also my face begin to sting. There were people giving and passing salt and water around, everyone helping each other no matter age, race, gender and religion. 

We were stuck there for almost 5 minutes; lastly I decided we need to get back to the main road to run away as staying there was not a very good choice.  Contacted my friend for his location then we ran to Muzium Telekom to gather and go back.

Just after about a minute of  reaching there, someone from behind shouted “Run! Run! Tear gas coming”.  I was thinking, “What is all this? Muzium Telekom is quite far away from Dataran and they still shoot tear gas here. “My friend and I  had no choice but to continue moving up heading back to KLCC.  Seriously, I wondered if they really just wanted to disperse the crowd from entering Dataran or they wanted to punish the Bersih rallygoers by chasing and tear gassing them all around the city. I reached home safely at about 6pm.

When do you feel Malaysians are united no matter age, race, gender and religion? For me, I do have that feeling  when there are badmintons matches/tournaments where everyone is supporting the Malaysian team. Besides that, on Bersih 3.0 [428] I did have the same feeling.

My leg muscles hurt for 2 days after 428.

Below is what I feel as well and I quoted from the links provided below:-

“Yes, there were some people who misbehaved, let's be honest. We don't know who they are but in such a large crowd there are bound to be people like that, despite instructions from the Bersih steering committee and marshalls not to provoke anyone. There are also very likely agent provocateurs who are out to make trouble and discredit Bersih.” Quote from My Bersih 3.0 Experience by Marina Mahathir.

http://rantingsbymm.blogspot.com/2012/04/my-bersih-30-experience-behind-barbed.html

“My mummy finally asked the mother of all questions, "So what did you all achieve that day?" I tried to answer, but under my daddy's watchful eyes, meaningful words failed me. So I turned on YouTube and showed my parents the "Same Day Edit" video that most of my friends were sharing on social media. Stunned silence came after. Where I could not find my voice, 80000 other Malaysians help me speak up.”

“I went because I love my country. I went because I am Malaysian. And thank you all who stood next to me that day to help me reaffirm that. ” “They were All Yellow” by  Charmvive.

http://charmvive.blogspot.com/2012/04/they-were-all-yellow-my-bersih-30-story.html

 

To end my story:

Bersih 3.0 Same day edit by lumierasia