Sunday, November 11, 2007

I Was There!

Photo courtesy of Minaq Jinggo

The sight of tens of thousands of people conggregated in front of the Istana Negara is awesome. And it's probably not going to be repeated for a long long time. I'm certainly glad that I made it there and the party leaders were able to submit the free and fair elections appeal to the Yang Di-Pertuan Agung.

It is unfortunate that some of our fellow Malaysians never made it to the rally for they were unreasonably and violent assaulted by the police. The silver lining was the fact that the Brickfields OCPD in-charge at the Palace took the necessary restraint, despite being under tremendous pressure to "clear" the area, which resulted in a peaceful gathering.

If only I remember to bring my camera, for there were some great moments to be captured. But there's plenty of pictures to share all round on the web, so that's not too bad ;)

The BERSIH march and rally was really a success but I would hesitate to repeat the feat too soon. Firstly, the King must be given sufficient time to act and respond. Secondly, I can assure you that the UMNO kingpins must be seething at this point of time and will certainly take all necessary actions to prevent another such meet. We can do more good work for the country out of jail, than in it. Furthermore, we should demonstrate that unlike UMNO and Barisan Nasional, we do not call for blood to be shed to prove our manhood. And thirdly, disrupting traffic and businesses in the city centre once may be tolerable and supported by all, but do that too frequently, these same supporters will turn against you - defeating the ultimate objectives of the rally. We want to win friends, not lose them.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Zam is a disgrace to mamaks. Better sell roti canai and such.

His agitated comments, broken sentences, stammering and shoddy level of english is due to the education system we have in Malaysia - just enough to make a fool of oneself in the world.

Anonymous said...

In case you missed it, here is a full transcript of Zam's disastrous phone interview on Al-Jazeera. Have fun ;)

-------------------------------
zam: for (your?) man you you.. youre journalist trying to project and exhibit more than what actually happened.. that.. that.. that it, we are laughing at the.. the.. i congratulate your journalist behaving like an actor.. very good actor*

aljazeera: as you say that sir we were watching scene of protestor being sprayed by*.. chemical fell both side..


zam: yeah im watching, i hear.. you see () you trying to do it everywhere but in Malaysia people are laugh at you, you know.. you know our powliss at last our (folig?) as have aaa.. what aa.. a lot of procession? to go to.. Istana Nagara.. you know.. do powliss, third powliss (amende ni?) might be handle them with a tear gas equip (?) powliss dont dont dont fire any anybody.. *

both talked

aljazeera: our correspondent came by to our office sir, with (inaudible) close in his eyes.

zam: (talk while aljazeera talked) bla.. bla.. bla.. your your idea is you trying to project what is your mind you think that we pakistan, we are burma, we are myanmar even that you thinking* we are different totally different, we are not like you

aljazeera: well unfortunately but you refused to let people demonstrate (inaudible) disappear(?) sir..

zam: im afraid you have early perception you come here you want to project us like undemocratic country, this is a democratic country. right?

aljazeera: so why cant people protest then if its a democratic country?

zam: yeah, people protest..do, first they protest, we are allowing protest, and they are demonstrator, but we are just trying to disper them, and then later they dont disper.. but later our powliss compromise, the have compromise and allowed them to Istana Nagara, powliss, our powliss has succeded in link them. *CUT*

continue..

zam: right? why do you report that and you take the opposition, someone from opposition party you ask him to speak? you dont take from the government? right?

aljazeera: why did you not break up this protest more peacefully? (few times)

zam: pardon.. pardon.. pardon.. i cant hear you.. i cant hear you.. no we.. we are.. this this.. this is illegal.. we dont want this..? normally, ive been bla bla..* haloo

aljazeera: ok, let to (inaudible) my former question, why this protest illegal?

zam: yeah it is illegal protest (aljazeera:why?) because we have election in Malaysia. is no no point of having a protest.. we are allowing we have every election, every 5 years never failed.. we not are like myanmar, not like other country, and you are helping this.. you aljazeera also helping this this causes, the, you know, this causes that who are not feel patient, who do not believe in democracy.. right..

aljazeera: okay, many thanks for joining us..

zam: yeah you are alja*.. this is aljazeera ejaekldfrj (inaudible) right? (ape dia ngarut?)
-------------------------------

Anonymous said...

I was there too! You can see me in the picture wearing a yellow t shirt 27th row from the front and number 56 from the left!

Anonymous said...

Boss,
I was there too! Thanks for the drink in CM.

Unknown said...

Tony

I must complain that you guys caused so much trouble on the 10th........for the BN.

You guys also create so much work for the main stream media. Look....they have to lie…...again. Just like our Dis Information Minister said about Malaysian Kini….."don't be a tool for them". Well, all the main stream media…..did you heard the man. Well, BBC was lying, Al Jezeera was lying + the Star was really truthful today...."our public toilets are friendly even to the disable". Take that as a yardstick......+ you can see who is lying. Rest assure, only the logical disabled in BN can't tell the different.

Tony...you see the problem you created. You woke up our PM from his sleep. Naughty2 you. He said that the rally was a Royal Trap. The Agong was trapped into seeing his subjects. The CJ had to speak thru' a cabinet minister + the Agong can't speak either.....must go thru' spokesman Abdullah. Just like a prisoner, being jailed behind the gates erected by BN. I suppose being trap, is not as bad as being put away. Daulat Tuanku!!!

Tony....you took away so much man hours from our police force. Boy were they ever stylo + bergaya. The full deal....from state of the art batons, lovely transparent shield, M 16, tear gas launchers, mounted units, red trunks with ice cream bells + those friendly water cannons mounted on top, helicopters + all those really confused looking guys with paku2 on the shoulders.

All the time consumed + equipments being diverted......all because of you guys. Normally they would be used to catch illegal immigrants, snatch thieves, child rapists, murderers, mat rempits.....basically to solve crimes.....tsk..tsk...tsk...jahat u......Tony. Now they have to spend time catching you guys.......look, you guys were armed…..with umbrellas, cameras, back packs, some even come with wheel chairs....+ my god!!! All of you were armed to the teeth with moral justification.

Finally....Tony...see what you have done. Normally they just have to lie once every 5 years.....now the Ministers have to try to looks like, listening to the people + world opinion,………disrupt the wealth creating activities of corruption.... Tony please stop these nonsense….or else we will have no choice, but to send you up to space + lock you up under ISA up there…..anyways, thanks god it is over…….Abdullah…….sambung tidur now.

Anonymous said...

I dont whats with these mamaks, pretending to be malay. They are much worse than the real malays in trying to appear pro malay. I am a mamak but ppl like zam, really are just bonkers make us all look like idiots. I would much rather be associated with a roti canai seller than a intellectual midget like zam.

Anonymous said...

It is indeed sad to see that Malaysians have to resort to peaceful walk to voice their concerns of growing corruption within and by the ruling government. It saddens more when even such a peaceful walk was denied, labeled illegal and turned into an ugly event with deployment of tactical police. If we are not equivalent to Myanmar and Pakistan, then what else are we?

Malaysians have been waited with much hope and enthusiasm since the premiership of Abdullah in 2004, to build a government with integrity. Hope was placed on him to uphold the constitution and provide a level play field to all Malaysians, and not just a particular ethnic group. Yet after four years, what is left is something that will only happen in our dreams, too much to happen in reality.

Perhaps we have no one to blame but ourselves. After all, we are the one who voted and gave the mandate to Abdullah in 2004, and Barisan for the past 50 years. Victories always turn people to arroganceness, activate active denial mode by thinking that they are the best and no one can challenge them. But the truth hurts, and it always hurts.

By publicly declared that "saya pantang dicabar," Abdullah made himself into a clown. He has been "dicabar" for 4 years since he took over, by his subordinates, the various ministers in his jumbo cabinet. Khairy for example, his own son-in-law, has been the one who sets the example and reality that Abdullah is impotent and can be challenged to your heart's content. So, when Abdullah issue such a declaration, Malaysians just took it as another joke by a clown.

Looking at how things went, perhaps it is better if Abdullah allowed the peaceful walk in the first place, and tactical police was not deployed. The event will then not receive the wide coverage as we have today, with BERSIH topping Technorati since the walk. No country will have the opportunity to play down Malaysia, and tarnish its wonderful image that took ages to be built. But Abdullah, you single-handedly destroyed that image, due to you ignorance and incompentency.

Thanks to you Abdullah, Malaysia is now the famous laughstock of the world.

Thanks to you Abdullah, Malaysia is now a police state of equivalence to Myanmar and North Korea.

Thanks to you Abdullah, Malaysians have to live in fear each day, worrying about their safety if they say the truth.

Thanks to you Abdullah, journalism is dead in Malaysia, with no newspapers dare to publish even a slice of reality to Malaysian in Malaysia.

Thanks to you Abdullah, Malaysians in Malaysia are left in mist with your wonderful magic show of cutting off the world from them, denying them basic rights of access to information.

And thanks to you Abdullah, for making Malaysia@50 a wonderful and unforgetful celebration of the ugly side human nature.

Signed,
An oversea Malaysian

Anonymous said...

A simple fact that anyone who goes against the ruling government is labeled opposition.

Who cares what is right and what is wrong?

Who and what is to justify the right and the wrong?

History is written by the winner.

That is the philosophy of Barisan Najis. Being ruled by Barisan Najis means Malaysians are SHITS. Let's embraced ASS and eat SHIT.

adam and eve said...

i am so damn proud of all u guys and gals.there is indeed salvation for malaysia