KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) - Malaysia's opposition and human rights groups on Sunday condemned authorities for attempting to suppress the biggest political rally in a decade with tear gas, water cannons and arrests.
Organisers also said that at least seven people were beaten and kicked by police and that some needed hospital treatment including one man whose leg was broken.
Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had vowed to shut down Saturday's rally, held to campaign for electoral reforms as the nation heads for polls expected to be held early next year.
Police locked down the centre of Kuala Lumpur, throwing up roadblocks, searching vehicles and shutting demonstrators out of Independence Square where they had planned to gather.
Despite the tactics and the use of tear gas and water cannons at one of the rallying points, 30,000 protesters marched to the royal palace where they were briefly addressed by dissident former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim.
"Malaysians have spoken loud and clear," said parliamentary opposition leader Lim Kit Siang, part of an alliance of political parties and civil society groups which mounted the rally.
Lim ridiculed the police chief for claiming that only 4,000 people attended the rally and criticised the government for what he said was an order to the media not to cover the event.
"No newspaper dared to publish photographs of the mammoth peaceful gathering, which was a tribute to Malaysians for their love of peace and commitment to democracy," he said.
Sunday's newspapers instead ran photos of the traffic jams that the roadblocks generated.
"Abdullah should honour his pledge when he became prime minister four years ago to listen to the truth from the people, however unpleasant, and to introduce institutional reforms for justice and democracy," Lim said.
Leading human rights group Suaram said that up to 40 people were arrested, far from the figure of 245 given by police.
"They are trying to portray an image of the gathering being unruly and chaotic and that's why they had to arrest 245 people, which is not true at all," said Suaram executive director Yap Swee Seng.
"Seven people were injured by the police and one suffered a severe injury," he added. "One person said he was handcuffed and had already fallen to the ground when he was kicked in the head."
Protests are rare in Malaysia, and the last major rallies were seen in 1998 during the "Reformasi" or "Reform" movement that erupted when Anwar was sacked and thrown in jail on sodomy and corruption charges.
The sodomy conviction has been overturned but the corruption verdict stands, barring him from standing for public office until April 2008.
The protest coalition is calling for a reform of the electoral process including a review of the electoral roll, curbs on postal voting, which they say is being abused, and equal access to state media for all competing parties.
tunku : the news of malaysia biggest political rally came out almost in all major newspaper and news channel around the world and of course it is shown that the police and the government dealt it violently.but if you were at the scene you will know the exact situation.the police handled it "gently".by right the can use all the powers they had as this is an illegal rally.the turn out is only about 15,000 people out of 100,000 estimated and it is not the voice of majority but minority.
the biggest issue here is pak lah has vowed one day earlier that he will shut down this rally and gave warning that no one(the opposition) should challenge him on this matter but i guess it's the opposition who challenged him.now the master traitor anwar ibrahim is organising another rally in 3 weeks time, what will abdullah do? this is what happen when you fails to handle a situation. would it be a normal thing in malaysia after this(the illegal rally)? if it is then it would be end of political stability in this country. any tom dick and harry will rally for anything after this.
how many shops have to close their business because of this rally, how many tourists stay away from the streets etc.you fail to handle the situation pak lah.
Malaysian Ringgit Converter
6 comments:
Hi tunku,
Indeed it was in general a peaceful protest. It was a bad move by the police (in particular those in Masjid Jamek) to react with physical dispersion, because any act of provocation is rather bad for the government.
Three questions to Tunku though:
1) Why police permit is rejected in the first place? How do political progress is expected to be made, if every single voice of disgruntled is shut down in order to "safeguard" the tourists or the saturday afternoon businesses? Please note that our Independence was achieved through protest, hartal, strike, and street movement too. If citizens have to abide by PM ruling without questions, then all of us shall just vote BN, since he has rallied for that too.
2) Haven't you notice the lack of reporting of the event by MALAYSIAN news media? I haven't seen any video or pictures from any MALAYSIAN media, apart from traffic jam pictures. Are we that immature, that we cannot handle the real news? What's the need for media blackout? Is that democratic?
3) Lastly, while i personally disagree with street violent and protest, and felt that changes should be done in ballot boxes > what in your opinion, should the people do, if the elections themselves are flawed and rigged. If there's nothing wrong with the system, why are there so many irregularities and mistakes? Where's the transparency? And, now, we re merely marching for clean anf fair insurance.
How about corruptions? The blantant power abuse? The tarnished judiciary? The rotten ACA, cops, A-G offices etc.... Civil servants are forced to be "pro-govt" through akujanji agrements. People's votes are not translated into representations in teh parliament.
Dear Tunku, I hope, while it's perfectly fine for you to disagree, you may provide with more substantial criticism, rather than a mere "that's just a minority march" swipe.
Thank you.
Rdgs,
malaysian
rational thinker,
the answer is not street protest unless the government is very very cruel. we in malaysia still considered very lucky.
every 5 years we have election, that is the chance for you to make changes, so please make one.
why not Bersih hold the gathering in a stadium, i'm sure than police wont have excuses rather going down to the streets.
what Bersih demand from SPR is already agreed by the SPR, transparent ballot boxes, permanent ink etc.after all election in malaysia is not as dirty as you think,otherwise kelantan won't be in Pas's hand and oppsition will never win especially in strategic area like town areas.
for the media issue, yes i admit that the government is not fair on this, they should let the opposition have good excess to the media.i believe the cyber world belongs to the opposition.
thanks rational thinker for yr comment.
Tunku,
I wish Lee Kuan Yew, while he is still alive and not yet very senile, can come here and give our leaders a course on how to lead a strong and almost unopposed govt.
dear Tunku,
Thank for the reply, a rational and thought-of answer too. This is becoming a rare commodity in a polarized world.
I too don't think street protest would achieve anything. However, it is an open secret that our current administration (not just the elected government, but the whole civil service itself) is very much rooted in money politics, corruptions, cronism, and yes, unfair elections. Our judiciary has time and time proved itself to be unfair. Our police act upon the direct instruction of the politicians, regardless of the truth and righteousness. Our ACA is equally hapless. Our media is surpressed and our education system is a brainwashing mechanism. All the basic ingredients of a modern democracy are taken away from our civil society.
What BERSIH requested is more than just transparent ballot boxes n permanent ink, but also cleansing of phantom voters and electoral registry, and unfair delineation. Yes our system is not 100% rigged, especially a system inherited from the western system. Why Malaysians like yourself, are satiated with "Cukup makan" outcome? Our elections can be much fairer. Our electoral system itself is flawed. Why 40% popular votes does not translated to at least 20% representation? I wonder.
Cyber world media will always remain at the hands of those who have access to it. It's not much wonder why our government can spend millions on rubbish programmes, but refuse to promote country wide broadband or free internet computers to rural population?
Maybe i am a brash young man, but these questions can t up but beg for answers.
REgards again,
RT
da real deal,
you r right. still they are not happy(the opposition). they should see how the opposition in singapore.they are million time facing tough time than our opposition in malaysia.
The line of argument that it is an illegal assembly is fair argument. Nevertheless, certain quarters of Malaysian believe that there is more political maturity and there is no more threat of insurgency, thus there shd be more leeway in the right to assembly as provided under the constitution.
I just wanna leave that debate aside.
I think the way the police dealt with it is commendable. They must send a message. Thank god, ntg untowards happened. Must admire also the crowd control ability of Amal. They even picked up and cleaning rubbish after demo.
I hate seeing the Anwar Ibrahim hijacking what seemed a call for a non political party demo. Tahts been a bullshit thing.
However, Pak Lah made a gave mistake in his handling. He spoke of police matter on a public platform. His idiotic SIL has no basis to talk of the demo also. Now it is seen as an UMNO instigated police reaction, although it is likely not.
Zam is just as plain idiotic. His comments on Al Jazeera exposed his incompetency in public relation, and English Language. Just realised the spokesmen for the country is a stutter!
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