Charis works at zubedy, a sincere young lady with no political inclination. Her experience is telling. If you have wisdom, reflect. Not all who went down town KL is pro this or pro that. They were simply Malaysians wanting to play a part in their country. Yes, one side may be using patriotism of individuals to achieve a political end, but, don’t forget individuals have their rights to choose :)
Anas zubedy
Someone Did Win on July 9th
By Charis Ding
I went as an individual rather than as a supporter. Whenever asked throughout the day, I told people "I just wanted to see what’s going on". And that was the truth.
In the weeks leading to it, I was undecided whether to support the rally. Right up to yesterday I couldn’t decide. But I knew I didn’t want to stay home or watch from a distance. I didn’t want to just follow the news online. I had to see it with my own eyes. So I decided to do a walkabout, and I thought perhaps it would take being there to help me make my stand. And so as I was there I considered myself an observer – a reporter.
The police presence at the Pasar Seni area was overwhelming. In front of Central Market, four or five blue trucks in a row. Tension on the streets. It was eerily quiet. On Petaling Street, I walked past a small sized aunty in a yellow shirt (: I overheard her words to a few young boys around her – "We must stay united" she said - "that’s why we must wear yellow, to show we are united". I smiled as I passed.
I saw that the flower shop was open and bought a bunch of daisies.
There was tension in the air, the sense of waiting for something to erupt. At Masjid Jamek, there were more policemen than civilians. I took note of their batons, their weapons. The air was oppressive. I caught myself seeing the men in uniform as the antagonists – weren’t they on the other side? But then I realized they were supposed to be our friends. It is their job to protect people like me.
3 comments:
Why cant the police provide security for orderly peaceful rally? In US, UK ..etc i have seen peaceful rallies being organized and police directing their rally routes.
I must say our demo was peaceful, -tear gas was fired when there no provocation, that not right way of riot management. In fact there no riot situation at all.
Good write up,
thing is , i do believe in demos, but i also strongly believe that you have to be absolutely right and certain in whatever it is that you want to fight for.
i doubt any of the demonstrators/activists has ever even read the SPR procedure or handbook. what should have been done was that they should get to know the process before making sure that the 8 demands are reasonable
write down the loopholes/flaws (if any) and then challenge the SPR or the Govt. I have not seen anything of the likes being presented by Ambiga and Co.
people can do this for work (especially those in engineering) but they can't seem to do it when it comes to pressing issues like this.
I would never just blast any of my consultants/contractors without reading through the procedures or drawings that they come up with.
Sadly, Malaysians (from both sides of the political divide) just prefer to be spoonfed by whomever they "THINK" is right and not by something that they have verified themselves.
God tells us (in the Quran) to verify everything before we uphold it as the truth, but when it comes to politics, i've never really seen anyone put this into practice.
This lady shared something else that went on during the rally, but its still a shame the rally was there in the first place.
the thought that people can just pass judgement before giving it any thorough research is very disheartening and i believe this has been happening for way too long.
Rasa sayu.
Video and hand-held phone cameras say it all, cant lies in this damn IT age. Police blamed protesters but the pictures show no outbreak of looting ,fighting or destruction of properties etc. The gatherings were just peaceful show of demand/event.
Any wonder why our neighbour Indonesia can has peaceful rally with police escort and why we cant hv that??..dont-lah tell me we are politically less mature in democratic sense!!
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