Bersih march to Istana Negara: What really happened Part 4
The huge crowds now were on their way towards the Sime Darby LRT station, and then to continue their walks to demand for clean and fair elections to Istana Negara. In this video, you can see, despite there were thousands of marchers on the streets of Kuala Lumpur, the traffic were not blocked at all. The crowds were walking and running on both sides of the roads and vehicles were passing through in the middle of the roads. The traffic were rather smooth although it moved at much slower pace. I reiterate, the traffic jams were not caused by the people marching on the streets, but by the roadblocks setup by the police. Had the police took a different approach of managing the traffic, I am very sure, the traffic jams as reported by the mainstream media could have been avoided.
When I reached the LRT station infront of the Sime Darby Building, I took up the stairs of the overhead pedestrians bridge towards Sime Darby building so that I can shoot the video footages from the top of the bridge. Just when I was about to leave the bridge, I was emotionally moved by what I saw right in front of me. I saw a blind man. I stopped for a brief few seconds and looked at the man behind another man very carefully to verify what I just saw… take a look at the short video here….
The blind man who was in the light yellow shirt was holding very tight to the man in the grey shirt as he was bending down to tighten up his shoe lace I presumed.. I asked both of them where they had come from and the man in the grey shirt told me they were from Batu Tiga. In my awe, I thanked them for walking with the rest of the crowds and that it was good that they had played their roles in this effort to ensure clean and fair elections. By this time, there was no tear gas infront of Sime Darby LRT station but all of a sudden, I felt my tears were rushing to get out as I tried as hard as I could not to show how much I was emotionally moved by the courage of this blind man in joining the march to Istana Negara… I didn’t know whether this brave blind man ever reach the palace but the message to the power that be is as clear as crystal….. people from all walks of life want change in the election processes.
And today, as I hop on from blogs to blogs looking for what others had to say about the awesome march for clean and fair elections, I came across this awesome story of Amri at Harris Ibrahim’s blog:
Finally, before I forget, to all those who did not attend the rally and march yesterday because you thought that there would be no need to as you were sure there would be others to make up the numbers, you owe a big ‘Thank You’ to Amri of Shah Alam.
He bore your responsibility on his shoulders.
To those whom did not make it to the historic walk for whatever reasons…. please say a big “THANK YOU” in the comments area of this post to show your solidarity with these two less fortunate but brave- and couraged-citizens.
The rest of the journey to the Istana Negara went very smoothly along Jalan Mahameru, passing National Mosque and all the way to the palace. I however decided to make my way back to Masjid Jamek when I reached what used to be ex-UMBC building where I was told that the Bersih delegation had successfully delivered the memorandum to the King and that the crowds at the Istana Negara were already on their way back to the city centre of Kuala Lumpur. By this time, the battery of my Nikon camera also went dead.
Malaysiakini had reported that the organiser had hailed the banned rally a success.
Despite attempts to spook the public from participating in the Bersih rally, 40,000 people turned up today in the largest show of force since the reformasi protests a decade ago.
Relief was clearly written on the faces of Bersih leaders and the police for they have both avoided the potential of an ugly confrontation. But the rally ended too early for thousands more who were still marching from downtown Kuala Lumpur to Istana Negara.
I will always remember this day in my life for as long as I live. Malaysiaku Gemilang.
[tags]Bersih, election, Istana Negara[/tags]
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POSTED IN: Bersih
14 opinions for Bersih march to Istana Negara: What really happened Part 4
Uncle JJ
Nov 11, 2007 at 9:40 pm
Thank You Very Much and my sincere apologies for not being able to join in the historic walk.
You guys are great and a big salute from me and my families
Thank You
woyelai
Nov 11, 2007 at 10:54 pm
Thank you. A historic walk in Malaysia. Sorry for not able to attend as I am in the Northern region. Thank you again and Daulat Tuanku to our King for his understanding to his people.
bakaq a.k.a. ~penarik beca
Nov 11, 2007 at 11:18 pm
Please go to Malaysiakita for photos links. Scroll down to “Historic Moments” below the blue ad. Thank you.
Rauff
Nov 11, 2007 at 11:48 pm
THANK YOU~!
Kean
Nov 12, 2007 at 1:34 am
Congratulation and Thank You to all those who participate in the Bersih rally especially our ‘OKU’ (orang kurang upaya) brothers and sisters. Your effort to do something for the Malaysian people despite your disabilities was really amazing and heart touching.
I feel a shame that I didn’t participate in this historic walk. Hopefully I would get more courage to join the next rally in the future. May god bless our people to have the courage to fight in these dark hours.
Har
Nov 12, 2007 at 9:28 am
THANK YOU!
concerned citizens against opportunist
Nov 12, 2007 at 10:00 am
You all never seem to be thankful to Allah swt for blessing this country. Have u been to other countries ie Indonesai, India, Myanmar, Nepal etc and see how people live in those countries. I have been to these countries and am thankful of what the govt has provided to us. Of course there is no perfect system. But any govt that is able to provide jobs and economic opportunities to any citizens who wants to work, ensure food on the table, allow for the welfare of the OKU to taken seriously, allow its citizen to shop and enjoy holidys despite so call economic depressions deserved to be praise and supported. IN Indonesia and Myanmar , people went rioting and gather to the street everyday because they got no job and no food to eat because govt doesn’t provide enough opportunities. In Malaysia demonstartion only happens on weekend and holidays because the participants have got jobs, food and comfortable home to go back to after so call ‘fighting’ for teh many ‘oppressions’ and ‘deperssions’ in the country. What gives ? Food for thought…..
CJCM: Thx for your visit. You are definitely entitled to your opinion. What you said is all true…. but that does not give the gov any right to not to provide fair free and elections… which is the crux of the march.
LTM
Nov 12, 2007 at 10:10 am
To all of you who went on this historic march. THANK YOU and God bless you. We will all have different roles to play in our struggle for justice and truth to prevail and as long as each Malaysian is willing to make sacrifices in his/her own way - then the truth will always prevail. God bless you all and God bless our beloved country.
onceVoice
Nov 12, 2007 at 5:49 pm
Thank you and congratulations to all those who care and willing to do something.
Wish I was there.
About time something happened.
John Tan
Nov 12, 2007 at 9:46 pm
I was in the march but unfortunately my path did not cross with those two brave gentleman. For all those with physical disabilities joining our march, you have my utmost respect. THANK YOU.
nur azlin mohd nazran
Nov 12, 2007 at 11:16 pm
Shabas for a successful demo despite the odds. Keep pushing to achieve our objectives. You have all our support fighting for good governance as well as for a a clean and fair election.
kurniawan
Nov 13, 2007 at 2:52 am
nice blog..
fabm
Nov 14, 2007 at 7:13 pm
Thanks for your interesting account of the Bersih rally.
I am compiling a list of detail commentaries so that people who are searching for them can easily find them. I hope you don’t mind if I use a couple of quotes from your blog for this list.
The compilation of the BERSIH blogs can be found here: http://mfabm.blogspot.com
Kurniawan
Nov 15, 2007 at 2:55 am
Good to hear that such a rare mass rally happened in KL. Freedom of expression is really needed in Malaysia.
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