Monday, July 11, 2011

The Protest in Kuala Lumpur

I always thought that Malaysia is a country that provide good economical, industrial, social-cultural, and political environment for its multiracial people to live in peaceful harmony.

My thought is based on the facts that have I seen, read and heard when I frequently visited the country between 1979 to 1983 when my father was assigned to the Indonesian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, and other visits after that.

Besides, many Malaysians invested in various business activities here and their products are available in our market such as Proton cars, Petronas petrol stations, and many Indonesians visited various places in the country every year for vacation, working, education, medical treatment or even gambling.

For that reason I was surprised when the news media reported about the clash between 50,000 protesters and the Riot Police in Kuala Lumpur last Saturday.

According to Herald Sun, the rare protest was organized by a broad coalition called Bersih that demands indelible ink to be used in the general elections to prevent multiple voting, equal access to the media for all parties and the cleaning-up of electoral rolls.

The opposition led by Anwar Ibrahim made major gains in 2008 elections against the ruling coalition but said it would have done better - potentially threatening the half century rule of the Barisan Nasional - if voting had been more fair.

The street protest was Malaysia's biggest since 2007, when the opposition led a demonstration in the capital also demanding electoral reforms.

At the height of the event, protesters faced baton-wielding riot police in front of a bus station, retreating at times and regrouping to push back police lines in a cat-and-mouse confrontation in heavy downpours.

Some demonstrators fought back by picking up tear gas canisters which they lobbed at police. But police lines held firm and the protesters failed to break through to march to the Merdeka Stadium and to the King's Palace to hand over a memorandum detailing their demands.

A total of 1667 people had been arrested although many were expected to be released on bail.

I hope that both parties would want to seat and talk together so that their differences could be solved amicably.

9 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi Harry,
Demanding for a level playing field is not anti govt.Fair play to reflect the masses true choice. I too wish that wisdom prevails here.Too much is at stake.

Take care.
Umi

Anonymous said...

Dear Harry

1) I wished you didn't call it a VIOLENT protest. I was there & we NEVER hurled any tear canisters at the police.

You can also read Dr Mahathir's (ex PM) daughter's blog She attended the peaceful rally as well. Her blog is

http://rantingsbymm.blogspot.com/2011/07/my-bersih-20-experience.html

Her father was once leader of
the ruling government so does she
have any reason to be against the
government ?

Even our national laureate (poet),
scholarly old man , A Samad Said joined in the rally although he was old and weak.

What does he benefit from doing so ?

The mainstream media has been
potraying nothing but LIES .

If you want to say VIOLENCE
it was the police who fired tear canisters at us.

Even an old lady
who peacefully handed flowers
to the police was not left untouched.

*********

2) If one is not the citizen's
of another's country, it's hard
to understand the people's
sufferings.

So I hope that people
from other countries will refrain
from brash judgement without having a thorough understanding of
our situation.

I for one won't even
know the Indonesian's sufferings.

But the people of Malaysia has
had enough . Lately there has been too many happenings that I feel ashamed to air my country's dirty
laundry for all to see.

********

3) Lately there has been growing
disenchantment with the government.

If you were to solely rely on
the media/ or people in the elite circles/ people who are party
members/ ignorant people , they are likely to give
a biased point of view.

The Facebook and Internet is where
we are free to vent our frustrations.

Those who don't believe me , you can view this page:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/100000-People-Request-Najib-Tun-Razak-Resignation/223344854372583

I know we don't owe an explanation to anyone, but the judgements in Singapore and some countries have been largely one sided, potraying
these as riots when it's the police
that's rioting.

deeahzone said...

Thanks for share Harry Nizam! sy gak terlalu mengikuti ttg berita Malaysia

Setyo-Utomo Said said...

It is normal that in a government there is also an opposite group. They will solve problems peacefully.

TUKANG CoLoNG said...

serasa bukan malaysia.. :D

r10 said...

apakah akan terjadi reformasi seperti di banyak negara termasuk indonesia? mari kita lihat

Unknown said...

@Umihoney,
I agree that asking for fair election cannot be considered as an anti-government.
Let's hope everything would soon be okay.

@Bear Wife,
Please understand that the words I used here were written spontaneous I don't have any bad intention whatsoever.
Especially that I love freedom of speech and writing.
The post itself is based on the report of the Herald Sun and other media.
Thank you for telling me the link of Dr Mahatir's daughter, and also the FB link. I will check them out.

@Deeahzone,
You are welcome.

@Utomo,
Let us hope that they will solve the problems peacefuly Pak.

@TUKANG CoLoNG,
Iya kejadiannya mengjutkan.

@R10,
Benar, mari lihat perkembangannya.

triesti said...

hi.. how's the meeting with colson? I had dance class yesterday:(

Unknown said...

@Triesti,
It was great, I wish that you could join us. I wrote a special post about meeting Colson.