It had been a long fucking time, I know..
It just that the last couple of weeks had been very, very hectic. I was choked with a fuckload of assignments and tests, and I kinda got overwhelmed by the sheer overload of it all. And that can kill anybody's mood to write anything ...or at least, just me.
And it is really not helping when all my attempts to download from mediafire return with a goddamn "Network Error" or "temporary error" screen. Well, not all -more to like 85% of the time- but still..fuck, right. I had been using Mediafire as my main downloading option for a couple of years now, favoring it for its speed, parallel download ability and no waiting time between downloads-the benefits you had to pay for with other download sites. And now its dead for me, killed either by the university or the more sinister force, the stupid MCMC. The MCMC, stands for "Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Comission", had already blocked 10 filesharing sites in Malaysia under the pretense of "to protect public revenue and preserve national security under Section 263 (2) of the Communication and Multimedia Act 1998".
But last i checked mediafire aint on their deathlist.
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And yesterday, the fateful 9th of July, there was this massive peaceful rally in Kuala Lumpur-BERSIH 2.0(literally, clean 2.0), protesting for a more clear,tranparent election, and some other demands. What started as a coalition of some number of NGOs turned somewhat political when the opposition party fully back the rally. And the government shat their pants, sprouting bullshits like the rally is politically motivated and declared it illegal, while using all their influences-the police and mainstream medias-to condemn the rally. The pro-government sides even started a new organization-Patriot- and threatening to hold a counter rally that day.
According to the plan, the Bersih rally participants are gonna met up in several strategic places in the city center and then peacefully march to the Istana Negara(National Palace) and pass the memorandum to the Sultan. But the government blew everything out of proportion, saying chaos and violences and "possible anarchy" will surely happen on the street that day-and said they will only allow it if it is hold in a stadium or something. So the rally organizer held a meeting with the Sultan and after a discussion, said"OK, we'll take the stadium offer". But then, at the last moment, the government reneged on its offer, saying that the rally can use a stadium but not the one in Kuala Lumpur, and refused to grant the permit to use that stadium. And Bersih answered that with a collective "Fuck You!".
Although the organizer repeatedly claim that the rally is a peaceful one, even back it up with the record of the first Bersih rally-where the only violence came from the police- the police, under the order of government, issued a total lockdown on Kuala Lumpur on that day. Roadblocks are being held on most of the main streets to the city center, resulting in one of the most legendary traffic jams in recent history. Several public transports are stopped. The riot squads, the FRU(Federal Reserve Units) are mobilised with their water cannons and tear gasses.
The rally supposedly start at 2.00 pm until 4.00 pm, but the police had already start searching and arresting civilians since the morning. Most of them were caught just because sporting, or hiding in their bag, the yellow Bersih T-Shirt-under the charges of "attempt to cause social unrest" or something. So to cut the story short, at 2.00 pm the civilians started to gather at different spots designated, with the total number of maybe 15-18k people(I dont know, there are fuckloads of people allright. Some even said there were some 50 k that day). There were some actions, the police fired the water cannon(with chemicals) and tear gasses on the crowds, but maybe the heavy rain that evening help lessened the effects of those irritant-chemical weapons a little. The crowds reacted only with more 'Bersih' and 'Clean the election' chants and singing the national anthem, "Negaraku".
In the end, after braving chemical waters and gasses and roadblocks, part of the protestors managed to arrive to Stadium Merdeka. The stadium was chosen for its historical value, it was the stadium in which the Declaration of Malaysian Independence was held in August 1957. After doing their rally..thingy..outside the stadium, the crowds dispersed peacefully on the order of the protest organizer some time after 4.00 pm. A smaller, separate group led by National Laureate A. Samad Said walked to Istana Negara to hand over the petition only to be blocked by the police which refused to let them pass. The petition handing was unsuccessful, though the Sultan himself agreed to receive the memorandum.
The police confirmed the arrest of more than 1400 people, and at least one death of a senior civilian, one 58 years old Baharuddin. He got stroke(or something) after been teargassed by the police. The protests are also held by Malaysian on other parts of the world such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, London and Australia without much fuss from their polices.
The 'counter rally' by the red-shirt wearing Patriot only managed to gather up some 500 persons for their cause and marched for 200m and then blocked by the police and dispersed quietly, stating they had "accomplished their objective and won the moral victory"...moral victory my ass. They handed their red shirt to anyone(with also a single note of RM50) so some of their 'members' that day are Bangladesh and Pakistani foreigners..and they dare used the name PATRIOT. What a bunch of fucking clowns..
All the mainstream medias then aired stories like they were violence started by the protestors and the total attendances were just 5-6000 people only. There was even this little story of how the police found a couple of bags with machetes, molotov cocktails(in fuckin plastic bottles,haha) and Bersih shirts 'hidden'. But after the people laughed at the very obviously lame setup, I never heard any mention of that story.
I did not attend the protest actually, eventhough my university is kinda near(like 45minutes bus travel). The government had already released a notice saying all government workers and students under government universities cant attend the gathering. If any were caught there, they will be immediately expelled from their respective institute. Even my mom, a primary school teacher, called me the night before and advised me not to go there. My university, in order to prevent any of its student go to the protest, rescheduled any remaining test to be held on that fateful Saturday. Well at least I said 'Fuck Off' to my test and monitor the protest's progression from the safety screen of my laptop's monitor.
It was the least I could do.
I am ashamed.
Bersih 2.0 Protest Timeline
*For the record, the ruling party had been in power since the Independence(1957).
