My Bersih 2.0 9th July walk started & ended at KL Sentral Part 2

My Bersih 2.0 9th July walk started & ended at KL Sentral Part 1

On Thursday evening I purchased my bus ticket for Friday morning leaving at 8 am. Back home I shoot an email to a friend living in KL informing her that I will be traveling on Friday. I told her to text me any latest news as I will be disconnected during the trip. I do not have the latest ipad or iphone, just a normal cellphone.

My packing is the simplest ever using a recyle bag with just 2 extra t-shirt and an emergency poncho. Knowing that random checks will be carried out, I leave everything yellow behind, this is not the time to be brave or a hero, the objective is to be there. I would rather be caught at ground zero on the day itself rather then sitting in jail somewhere else.

Surprisingly the trip was very smooth, no road blocks all the way to 1Utama, the first stop. I decided to get off at this point after talking to the driver. Since my hotel is in PJ, it would be easier and closer rather then expecting a big jam down to Puduraya bus station.

I checked into the hotel requesting 2 nights stay but was disappointed that Saturday is full. In the room I sent a text message to my friend and informed her that I had dug in. I stayed in the room until dinner time.

When I went down for dinner there were 5 policemen/woman at the hotel lobby. Outside a police car was parked not far away. They were still there, but left only three, when I came back from dinner. I got back into my room and waited for the final moment.

Saturday, 9th July 2011, what is going to happen, no one knows, maybe only the predators will know. I woke up feeling a little tense, check for any text messages, no message, so its on. I went down to have my breakfast and saw two police one male,one female sitting at the lobby.

Coming back from breakfast and seeing the police were still there, I decided to have a chat with them. One male and one female, both in their mid thirties. I started my conversation by asking them where to take a bus back to Penang. They told me the Pudu station is closed and I started venturing into the Bersih rally. Sensing that I will be going to the rally, he started to sway away from the topic and ask how was the Penang Government, is PR able to retain the State and ending the conversation, he simply acknowledge that they are just doing their job and earning for a living.

I thank and say goodbye to them as I need to check out before noon. I checked out at 11:30 am and headed to the nearest LRT station. My plan is to ride the LRT and monorail to make a survey first at which point is the best to get down.

I bought the LRT ticket and the first person I encounter were policemen stationed there. One asked "uncle nak pergi mana", I told him KL Sentral and walked away. Two young teenagers were stopped and their backpack searched.

There were at least three to five policemen at every station that I passed. All roads leading to KL were quiet, no cars and as you approached KL all the main roads were blocked. Even though I bought the ticket for KL Sentral, I continue my journey towards Pasar Seni and Masjid Jamek. At this time both stations were not closed as yet. At Pasar Seni I could see about a thousand people walking towards the GPO but could not view further than that. After Pasar Seni the journey to Masjid Jamek was underground right through to KLCC. Failing to see anything I drop at Kampong Baru station and took the reverse back to KL Sentral.

From KL Sentral I took the monorail to see what the situation is like at Stadium Merdeka. Both the Maharajalela and Hang Tuah stations were closed. The road leading to the stadium were deserted except for the FRU and police. Not knowing that people were gathering around Puduraya and Sungai Wang I decided to go back to KL Sentral.

At KL Sentral I walk around and saw the extremely large crowd all over the place and of course the many police and SB present as well. The police and SB were questioning and searching at random among the people, youngsters, middle age and old male and female. About 20 people were arrested inside the station and brought to the trucks waiting outside.

As I walk towards the exit, I slip and fell and twisted my back. A young couple help me and guided me inside looking for a place to sit. What a day of all days to get my back injured and not able to join in the walk for freedom.

After a short rest and discovered that I could not walk in the rally because of the pain, I decided then to call it the day. I inched my way to the ticketing booth and take the LRT back to PJ and from there journey back home. Just before boarding the train, suddenly there were loud chatting and for a second I was thinking of going back to join them but realised that I could not walk fast enough with the back pain. (this must be the group where the people got tear gassed inside the tunnel)

Readers must be hoping to read all about the attacks of tear gas and water cannon and not this boring shit. I apologised for I cannot write what I have not experienced and there are reasons as to why I wrote this article.

1) From what I saw while travelling between the LRT and monorail stations, there are thousand others who are lost, mostly from outstation, and could not find their way out to join the rally.

2) All the stories from government of businesses lost and traffic chaos are all bullshit. They themselves are causing the business lost when they lock down completely the whole inner KL. My question is why can't they allow the protesters to march along the empty roads since they are locked down instead of forcing the people to rally throughout the heart of KL.

3) The police force are so efficient in clamping down the rally with police everywhere from LRT stations, roadblocks and even hotels. But PDRM is complaining of insufficient workforce when it comes to fighting crime. Can we see daily policing from the police like what they did on the 9th July?

4) In Malaysia anything that you do that are against umno/bn, even when its legal you will face the wrath from all the government institutions.

5) For now we have to live with it, tolerate and when the right time comes, you have to wise up and elect a competent government that does not make the world laugh at us for all the silly things that they do.