police crack taken to a new literal level
with protesters having their heads cracked open and being sent to hospitals. apala..
since not everyone's got subscription to malaysiakini (which you should if you haven't, they're worth supporting in broadest principle if nothing else)
Brutal end to anti-fuel hike demo
May 28, 06 2:09pm
It was supposed to be the climax of a series of anti-fuel hike demonstrations, yet it ended on a tragic note when police today forcefully broke up the protest with at least two hospitalised.
At 10.30am, the 500-strong crowd gathered near the Jalan Ampang entrance of the iconic Kuala Lumpur City Centre and began their peaceful protest with noisy chants and fiery speeches.
One of the protest banners said: "Cronies get rich while workers are oppressed".
The protestors also slammed a government's decision last week to raise electricity tariffs by 12 percent - the first hike in nearly a decade.
Some 100 riot police wielding batons and rifles stood guard in front of KLCC Twin Towers, alongside several water cannon trucks, as helicopters flew overhead.
"Everybody is suffering from the fuel hike. Now electricity prices are also up. These two hikes will hit us hard, whether our pay is large or small," chief protest organiser Dr Hatta Ramli told the crowd.
Things took a turn for the worse when the third speaker at the demonstration, DAP representative Ronnie Liu, expressed his gratitude for the support given by voters to the opposition at the recent Sarawak state elections.
Immediately, the police through loudhailers issued an order for the crowd to disperse. The crowd ignored the warning, and five minutes later, water cannons were fired.
Despite being drenched profusely, most of the crowd defiantly held their ground, prompting plainclothes police officers to move in and make random arrests.
Those arrested include Liu, PAS Kubang Kerian member of parliament Salahuddin Ayub and Parti Keadilan Rakyat deputy information chief Badrul Hisham.
As the crowd moved out of the water cannons' range, the Federal Reserve Unit (FRU) charged at them sending many protestors, including women and children, running for cover as shocked Sunday shoppers looked on.
Excessive violence
Eyewitness reports tell of excessive violence being used by the FRU on several protestors, including PKR deputy secretary-general Zahir Hassan, who was kicked a number of times while sprawled on the road.
Zahir was walking away from the protest venue with his two daughters when he was repeatedly shoved from behind by a FRU officer using his shield (left and below).
The FRU officer then turned to Zahir’s two daughters, both in their 20s, pushing one of them. Enraged, Zahir attempted to protect his daughters from the police officer.
Instead, Zahir was assaulted by several FRU personnel. He was thrown to the floor, endured several blows of police baton and at least three kicks - two on the back and one on the abdomen - prompting his daughters to scream hysterically.
All this while, Zahir was clutching onto the anti-fuel hike booklet that was distributed at the protest. According to PKR information chief Tian Chua, Zahir - who was arrested by the police - had been sent to the hospital for medical attention.
An X-ray was taken before Zahir was sent to the Pudu police station where other detainees were held.
In another altercation, one protestor was subdued by at least 10 FRU personnel.
The protester held on to a police officer in a bid to shield himself from the blows, which included one from the butt end of a gas canister launcher.
Traces of blood stains were also found at the entrance of KLCC, where a scuffle between FRU personnel and an unidentified protestor had allegedly taken place. The protestor was believed to have been hospitalised for lacerations to the head.
Cops act in self-defence
Dang Wangi OCPD ACP Kamal Pasha (right) told reporters after the police wrapped up their operations at about 11.30am, that 18 individuals were arrested, including two women.
Asked by malaysiakini if the use of force, especially the repeated kicking by his men, were justifiable, Kamal told reporters that his men had acted in self-defence.
"They (the protestors) resisted arrest. They started kicking first. (Retaliation) for us is self-defence. Minimum force was used," insisted Kamal.
After the FRU and the bulk of the police had left the scene, some remaining 300 protestors regroup for a short address by PAS central committee member and chief protest organiser Hatta.
He told the crowd that past protests had been peaceful and this protest was to be the last before they begin a new phase of their anti-fuel hike campaign.
When he asked the crowd if they should continue street protests in reaction to today's violent response from the police, he was met with boisterous shouts of agreement.
A crowd later gathered outside the Pudu police station where the detained protestors were held. At about 4pm, all 18 were freed on police bail.
The protestors said that they might go the Human Rights Commission, or Suhakam, tomorrow to lodge a complaint against the police.
was just thinking to myself the other day, if the 'revolutionary machine' in malaysia might need to work a little differently than the normal. ie taking over streets in protests, combined with the usual flavour of displays of power through physical aggression and the volume of collective speech (public or police). if there is a need for something a little less 'confrontational' to move a generally fearful and forgetful public. something that borrows maybe from the hugely successful mind-washing approach of marketing and promotion companies. 'branding' change.
i overheard a conversation at a banana leaf place yesterday, taking place between three individuals whom i'll assume work in some kind of marketing company. one quote that made me want to throw my glass of sirap limau ais at them was, "the trick is to get them to buy more than they need. so maybe throw in some kind of incentive, something extra.". there is no hint of ethical qualms, of feeding the consumption machine; the only thing is to make sure that you've got the best gimmick first. come up with the most original and effective way of tricking the largest group of people to spend limited resources of the unnecessary.
that really pissed me off. but they looked like normal, decent folk. trying to make a living, and get that i-pod Lifestyle as soon and as immediately visible as possible. they are civic conscious and respond adoringly to the government's call for 'economic development'. if someone approaches them for a donation to cause, i'm pretty sure they will pause for a second and then shell out RM10 to this yayasan or the other. they've probably never stolen, hit or abused someone in their lives. they are, pretty much, part of the 'masses' that 'revolutionists' & 'activists' want to change.
what is the point of speaking to cushion covered people through marches in the street? being subjected to violence? making a point in the more direct way possible? enacting marxist tactics whent the lines between borgeouise, proletariat, oppressor and oppressed is as mixed up as a plate of over-boiled maggi mee? most will not even realise that this has happened, unless they happened to be shopping in KLCC this morning. i doubt that the star, or nst, or utusan, or most of the mainstream press will cover this in any great detail. and even if they did, the light will cast alienating shadows on the protestors. this branding exercise, of 'change needs to come through acts of militant rebellion', probably wont work.
maybe they are an insignificant sector of society. maybe that is the reasoning. i mean, who wants to work with the comfy middle-classes? let's work with the Real People. those at the margins and struggled for. there is something distasteful and unromantic about doing activism with the relatively privileged. it does not stir the imagination. hard to think of 'revolution' with a bunch of starbucks frappucino sipping, digital camera weilding, clean clothes and nice haircut wearing citizens. much more exciting to think of sweat, khaki colours, sarongs, selipars and so on. meanwhile, the World Bank hails Malaysia as a upper middle income nation, with the Prime Minister justifying the 9th MP as facilitating everyone's equal right to access this middle-class dream.
how lah like this? there's a huge section of the country that is actually forgotten. displaced in estates, low-cost homes being represented as the anti-condo dark mirror, working in multiple jobs, resorting to loan sharks, bomohs and arrogant relatives who have 'made it', walking, cycling and bussing it daily, having meat only on special occassions, so on, so on, so on.
realistically, what power do they have? they cant even access court rooms if they dont have enough money to buy long sleeve clothes and pants and toe-covered slippers. when they vote, mobility is so easily sabotaged. when they speak, are they speaking their needs or are they speaking their needs as framed and flamed by (probably) middle-income 'revolutionists' with a fetish for 'slumming it'?
i dont know. more tomorrow.
since not everyone's got subscription to malaysiakini (which you should if you haven't, they're worth supporting in broadest principle if nothing else)
Brutal end to anti-fuel hike demo
May 28, 06 2:09pm
It was supposed to be the climax of a series of anti-fuel hike demonstrations, yet it ended on a tragic note when police today forcefully broke up the protest with at least two hospitalised.
At 10.30am, the 500-strong crowd gathered near the Jalan Ampang entrance of the iconic Kuala Lumpur City Centre and began their peaceful protest with noisy chants and fiery speeches.
One of the protest banners said: "Cronies get rich while workers are oppressed".
The protestors also slammed a government's decision last week to raise electricity tariffs by 12 percent - the first hike in nearly a decade.
Some 100 riot police wielding batons and rifles stood guard in front of KLCC Twin Towers, alongside several water cannon trucks, as helicopters flew overhead.
"Everybody is suffering from the fuel hike. Now electricity prices are also up. These two hikes will hit us hard, whether our pay is large or small," chief protest organiser Dr Hatta Ramli told the crowd.
Things took a turn for the worse when the third speaker at the demonstration, DAP representative Ronnie Liu, expressed his gratitude for the support given by voters to the opposition at the recent Sarawak state elections.
Immediately, the police through loudhailers issued an order for the crowd to disperse. The crowd ignored the warning, and five minutes later, water cannons were fired.
Despite being drenched profusely, most of the crowd defiantly held their ground, prompting plainclothes police officers to move in and make random arrests.
Those arrested include Liu, PAS Kubang Kerian member of parliament Salahuddin Ayub and Parti Keadilan Rakyat deputy information chief Badrul Hisham.
As the crowd moved out of the water cannons' range, the Federal Reserve Unit (FRU) charged at them sending many protestors, including women and children, running for cover as shocked Sunday shoppers looked on.
Excessive violence
Eyewitness reports tell of excessive violence being used by the FRU on several protestors, including PKR deputy secretary-general Zahir Hassan, who was kicked a number of times while sprawled on the road.
Zahir was walking away from the protest venue with his two daughters when he was repeatedly shoved from behind by a FRU officer using his shield (left and below).
The FRU officer then turned to Zahir’s two daughters, both in their 20s, pushing one of them. Enraged, Zahir attempted to protect his daughters from the police officer.
Instead, Zahir was assaulted by several FRU personnel. He was thrown to the floor, endured several blows of police baton and at least three kicks - two on the back and one on the abdomen - prompting his daughters to scream hysterically.
All this while, Zahir was clutching onto the anti-fuel hike booklet that was distributed at the protest. According to PKR information chief Tian Chua, Zahir - who was arrested by the police - had been sent to the hospital for medical attention.
An X-ray was taken before Zahir was sent to the Pudu police station where other detainees were held.
In another altercation, one protestor was subdued by at least 10 FRU personnel.
The protester held on to a police officer in a bid to shield himself from the blows, which included one from the butt end of a gas canister launcher.
Traces of blood stains were also found at the entrance of KLCC, where a scuffle between FRU personnel and an unidentified protestor had allegedly taken place. The protestor was believed to have been hospitalised for lacerations to the head.
Cops act in self-defence
Dang Wangi OCPD ACP Kamal Pasha (right) told reporters after the police wrapped up their operations at about 11.30am, that 18 individuals were arrested, including two women.
Asked by malaysiakini if the use of force, especially the repeated kicking by his men, were justifiable, Kamal told reporters that his men had acted in self-defence.
"They (the protestors) resisted arrest. They started kicking first. (Retaliation) for us is self-defence. Minimum force was used," insisted Kamal.
After the FRU and the bulk of the police had left the scene, some remaining 300 protestors regroup for a short address by PAS central committee member and chief protest organiser Hatta.
He told the crowd that past protests had been peaceful and this protest was to be the last before they begin a new phase of their anti-fuel hike campaign.
When he asked the crowd if they should continue street protests in reaction to today's violent response from the police, he was met with boisterous shouts of agreement.
A crowd later gathered outside the Pudu police station where the detained protestors were held. At about 4pm, all 18 were freed on police bail.
The protestors said that they might go the Human Rights Commission, or Suhakam, tomorrow to lodge a complaint against the police.
was just thinking to myself the other day, if the 'revolutionary machine' in malaysia might need to work a little differently than the normal. ie taking over streets in protests, combined with the usual flavour of displays of power through physical aggression and the volume of collective speech (public or police). if there is a need for something a little less 'confrontational' to move a generally fearful and forgetful public. something that borrows maybe from the hugely successful mind-washing approach of marketing and promotion companies. 'branding' change.
i overheard a conversation at a banana leaf place yesterday, taking place between three individuals whom i'll assume work in some kind of marketing company. one quote that made me want to throw my glass of sirap limau ais at them was, "the trick is to get them to buy more than they need. so maybe throw in some kind of incentive, something extra.". there is no hint of ethical qualms, of feeding the consumption machine; the only thing is to make sure that you've got the best gimmick first. come up with the most original and effective way of tricking the largest group of people to spend limited resources of the unnecessary.
that really pissed me off. but they looked like normal, decent folk. trying to make a living, and get that i-pod Lifestyle as soon and as immediately visible as possible. they are civic conscious and respond adoringly to the government's call for 'economic development'. if someone approaches them for a donation to cause, i'm pretty sure they will pause for a second and then shell out RM10 to this yayasan or the other. they've probably never stolen, hit or abused someone in their lives. they are, pretty much, part of the 'masses' that 'revolutionists' & 'activists' want to change.
what is the point of speaking to cushion covered people through marches in the street? being subjected to violence? making a point in the more direct way possible? enacting marxist tactics whent the lines between borgeouise, proletariat, oppressor and oppressed is as mixed up as a plate of over-boiled maggi mee? most will not even realise that this has happened, unless they happened to be shopping in KLCC this morning. i doubt that the star, or nst, or utusan, or most of the mainstream press will cover this in any great detail. and even if they did, the light will cast alienating shadows on the protestors. this branding exercise, of 'change needs to come through acts of militant rebellion', probably wont work.
maybe they are an insignificant sector of society. maybe that is the reasoning. i mean, who wants to work with the comfy middle-classes? let's work with the Real People. those at the margins and struggled for. there is something distasteful and unromantic about doing activism with the relatively privileged. it does not stir the imagination. hard to think of 'revolution' with a bunch of starbucks frappucino sipping, digital camera weilding, clean clothes and nice haircut wearing citizens. much more exciting to think of sweat, khaki colours, sarongs, selipars and so on. meanwhile, the World Bank hails Malaysia as a upper middle income nation, with the Prime Minister justifying the 9th MP as facilitating everyone's equal right to access this middle-class dream.
how lah like this? there's a huge section of the country that is actually forgotten. displaced in estates, low-cost homes being represented as the anti-condo dark mirror, working in multiple jobs, resorting to loan sharks, bomohs and arrogant relatives who have 'made it', walking, cycling and bussing it daily, having meat only on special occassions, so on, so on, so on.
realistically, what power do they have? they cant even access court rooms if they dont have enough money to buy long sleeve clothes and pants and toe-covered slippers. when they vote, mobility is so easily sabotaged. when they speak, are they speaking their needs or are they speaking their needs as framed and flamed by (probably) middle-income 'revolutionists' with a fetish for 'slumming it'?
i dont know. more tomorrow.