Ku lihat…. Kuning
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Z sent us a sms at around 11am. Roadblocks everywhere. Traffic is hell. Better don’t drive.
Yes, traffic was hell! We were in Kepong and it was already jammed up. JK checks the net on his phone and reads that train services were delayed and some LRT stations were closed. Wow! What a coincidence.
We decided to give the train a try anyway. We u-turned to Kepong Sentral and took the KTM Komuter. Not a single yellow man in the train. JK was worried, "Eh, got people go wan or not? If not, we’re the only sohais afterwards, how?". "Nehmind la, you always look like sohai anyway".
Maybe people decided not to go because it was really starting to rain. We don’t know. Then we get another sms from Z, "FRU attacking crowd. Water cannon, tear gas fired. Chaos! Arrests! In mosque now. Avoid Masjid Jamek. Head to other meeting point. Pasar Seni"
Sei lor! At that point, we really didn’t know whether it was really serious or we should just go anyway. We became worried but we were still determined not to be intimidated. Luckily the wisest among us (who ar?) said, "Aiyah, water & gas only lah, won’t die wan lar". Good point rite?
We thought we’d try to keep Z’s spirit high by humouring him. So we thought up messages each of us could individually send to him. I smsed "Stay safe. Dun run in a straight line. Always run in a zig zag pattern. Da water cannon guy hates it when u do dat! :P".
BC sent "If the gas dun kill u, ur smoking habits will. Btw, how was the nasi lemak?" and JK’s was the best "It’s ok. We lied. We’re not going. Watching Otai now. Nasha Aziz is so hot! Wish u were here". You do not want to know what Z’s reply was. :D
We got down at KL Sentral to take the LRT to Central Market. But the ticket machines were all out of order! (hmm, how come ar?) We had to queue up to buy the tickets from the counter. The problem was the queue was so long and it would have taken forever. Many were pissed. Luckily the wisest among us (who ar?) suddenly saw the light. We could take the KTM Komuter again and stop at KL station which was within walking distance to Central Market.
We got off at KL station. We were happy to see quite a number of yellow men and women everywhere. There were many police officers as well and they blocked off the route to Dayabumi. So we decided to walk to Dataran Merdeka via Central Market. After a short walk, we were greeted by the FRU.
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When I saw that they had blocked the route to Dataran Merdeka, I thought about rushing at them with my fists in the air and shouting "FREEEEDOM!". But since I was probably going to be the only one doing that, I just stood there and told the guys, "Well ok, at least we tried". :P
But no. The guys won’t let up so easily. They challenged me to go up to the FRU guys and ask them, "Boss, macam mana saya mau pigi Dataran Merdeka?". The bet was a bowl of curry laksa. OMGosh! It’s cold and it’s raining. I’m wet. A bowl of curry laksa sounds soooo right. So I went closer and…. snapped some photos.
 Even some of the police were bored! |
 The copter that kept hovering above taking videos so that they could identify the culprits should anything untoward happen. |
 We were looking for the guy that shot his cannon at Z. |
 There was no way in to Dataran. What do we do now? Who do we talk to? We don’t know. So we just walked around aimlessly and followed the sea of yellow. |
We were about to head towards Central Market until Z called us. The memorandum had been passed to the Istana! And we missed it! He’s walking back towards Dayabumi now. So we turned and walked towards his direction.
 We arrived just in time to catch him (with white cap) as he was right about to show his finger to one of his "bruders". |
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Perhaps by attending we did enough to show that many do care. The whole point is to send a message right? There were so many that came even celebrities, a few comedians and actors.
So did we do enough to "mencabar" a PM who is pantang dicabar? A PM who said that the rakyat must reject street demonstrations. Man, he should really talk to his son in-law about that. Doesn’t he have a knack for protesting on the streets? I can personally say that the Bersih participants were very well behaved from what I saw. The only shouts I heard were Daulat Tuanku! To be fair to the police force, they too acted quite professionally except for the incident at Masjid Jamek which according to Z, the police overreacted. The crowd was walking towards Dataran and when the police saw them, they put on their riot gear! I think the authorities overreacted on many counts. My gosh, the amount of roadblocks on the roads, for what? All they did was create massive traffic jams.
However, I was also slightly disappointed at a few things. Mainly where were the Chinese and Indian community? I think perhaps only 10% were non-Malays. Perhaps it’s like a Chinese uncle I met today commented, "They say they are unhappy but in reality they’re not unhappy enough with the way things are going to get involved. Things are still acceptable to many of us". I think it’s because they don’t feel it will make a difference. Who knows. If you think that about the rally, think why the government was so "gung ho" to stop it from happening. It was bad publicity for them. There were foreign press there. 50,000 demonstrators could lead to many more in the next one. It creates a buzz. It must be stopped before the buzz gets too loud. See what it did to the Chief Justice scandal. The guy is gone now.
So anyway I walked today. Ok, I didn’t walk far, I didn’t walk all the way to the istana. But I’m still proud that I did it and not just say that I would do it. If not, my guys would have given me stick for the whole year. Pheeew! I would no longer be allowed to rant about how things are in this country in front of them again. I walked around and around and then I got hungry and some one bought me curry laksa. Kakakakaaka.|
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End of story. I’m tired. Sekian terima kasih.
I was at Masjid Jamek making my way to COliseum for lunch. Inside coliseum I was looking around for anyone resembling you or in yellow boots. Tadak. I wanted to ask your favorite old waiter though whether you are around… :-p
I kena tear gas and now can go back to Ipoh and brag for the rest of my life. lol
As for the Masjid Negara, I am there. I must have seen you… You got see me or not? I din wear yellow lar.. sked not yet reach the place also kena tangkap.
Reply : We were at the other side, Dayabumi, Central Market.
Yes! Isn’t it cool! How many people can tell their neighbours, kids and grandkids, “One time, I kena tear gas by FRU!”. I envy u, u activist!
Which route did u take? In front of Dayabumi?
Overall, it was a fun outing wasn’t it. Wish it was a weekly affair. Kakakakakaka!
Comment by helen — 11 November 2007 @ 9:10 am
wei your captions for the pictures damn funny la!!!
Hopefully this sends the message across!!
Malaysia mia peaceful protest so “tai zhan zheong” wan!
Here (Melbourne) you will see a bunch of people protesting (walking, shouting stuff, holding banner) and the policemen will walk beside them as if to “escort” them and not let them cause trouble.
Such difference in political culture.
Reply : Hahahaha… that’s how we pass time. By making up funny jokes about everything. We were laughing and giggling like small boys trapped inside a man’s body. :P
Yeah, the authorities really tried to prevent it from happening but in the end, they allowed it to pass quite peacefully.
That should be the way. The police should have that mentality of protect and serve first, making sure nothing unwanted happens instead of having a ready to fight, “pantang dicabar” mentality. :P
Comment by Jess — 11 November 2007 @ 12:06 pm
I was sooooo proud when I read about it online and saw the huge crowd. Police say there were about 10,000 ppl and they always understate the numbers, so there must have been even more!! Way to go, adrian! And helen!!
Now let that stooooooopid minister say only a few people are disgruntled!! Pah!!
Reply : We were actually worried only a few would show up coz everyone kept their yellow t-shirts in their bags initially. Yeah, the govt owned media said only 10,000, NGOs & foreign media say 50,000 and PAS say 100,000. Who to believe? :P
Comment by kat — 11 November 2007 @ 12:12 pm
i fucking missed all the fun wrahhhh
im gonna camp at dataran merdeka for the next march so that noone can stop me muahahha but ill most probably get killed by some umno zealots
Reply : Yalar, I tot u were going with zewt. But can understand ur family’s concern la. All our families were concerned as well. We dun know what would happen at these rallies.
Eh, even some umno members joined in the march!
Comment by tingtitlei — 11 November 2007 @ 1:01 pm
U know ah..I damn pissed off. They rejected the protest becoz one of the reasons : “It would cause disruptions to the road users”.
MAHAI! KNNCCB! They farking started roadblocks at all the main arteries in KL..at 7am already. These overzealous idiots were the ones causing the traffic disruptions leh!
If they had “walked” with the protestors…that would have been less traffic chaos. No…bloody…farking…SENSE!
Yea..I wore my yellow bra n undies….my father, father-in-law and hub (notice…all men!) forbade me to wear yellow outside. cheh!
Reply : Exactly! They were the ones that caused the jam. The other reason was that PakLah said there has never been any peaceful protest before. Well I can honestly say yesterday, even the PAS supporters (who have been termed as trouble makers b4) were so well behaved.
Their volunteer team in red (I think it’s called Unit Amal), I salute them. While the police were just standing around and telling people to get lost, they stood at junctions between the police to direct traffic and keep demonstrators away from the police to prevent any unwanted incidents. At the end of the rally, I saw many of them with plastic bags in their hands, combing the streets picking up rubbish! Honest to God! Have UMNO youth protesters ever done that?
Aiyoh, they were afraid the police would come and lock u up mah. :)
Comment by mott — 11 November 2007 @ 2:42 pm
oh ya…ur commentaries..damn 9 farnee man….
Reply : Hahahaa.. glad u enjoyed it.
Comment by mott — 11 November 2007 @ 2:42 pm
I was at Masjid Jamek, and then after tear gas attack (damn lansi can boast now… at that time sked like hell) I headed back to Masjid Negara. The route to Istana was all blocked.. Lucky I caught the crowd making their way back from the Istana. lol
I did go Central Market… but then was inside Kopitiam drinking ice tea. A few policemen were also drinking there..
I meant to ask you, what camera are you using? Damn pahwer.. can even catch the guy inside the helicopter. Is it those big camera with tele lenses? Hope nobody mistaken your kick ass camera for rocket launcher..
Reply : Hahaha… I was sked when we turned into Dataran Junction and saw all the FRU there. :P Only after a while did we get “de-sensitised” to their presence.
We had drinks at the Kopitiam later that day as well. All these rallies are actually good for the mamaks restaurants. We initially wanted to get some teh tarik but there wasn’t any empty seats.
We decided not to bring our DSLR (belongs to the company) bcoz we were worried it might get damaged in the event something happened and we had to run in a zig zag pattern. So I used my personal Canon S5 IS which worked quite well bcoz it had 12x optical zoom. It can really zoom into far away objects. But I seldom use it bcoz it’s quite big to carry around. I only used it b4 to zoom into the other units in my place to spy on leng luis. :P
Btw, I think there’s something wrong with blogspot today. I haven’t been able to post comments on ur blog since this afternoon.
Comment by helen — 11 November 2007 @ 4:59 pm
aiyah… these blurdy ppl hor, blocked the roads like so tai chan zheong lidat. i was on my way to bkt beruntung and all the roads are all blocked and i was damn frustrated ok!!! so jam, and by the time i reached bkt beruntung, i missed my appt!!!! i cursed and sweared so loud, i think, the fella in the next car heard me… and I WAS INSIDE MY CAR!!
Reply : Aiyo, u sweared so loud, we even heard u down in KL! Kakakakakaka. :P
Comment by Oscar's Mommy — 11 November 2007 @ 5:21 pm
hi dear : I am so pround of u , yes u did something u think is right for the coutry, agree with u we chinese some of them only got a big mouth to talk and complain about it when time come there dare not or no ball to shout out loud . I love malaysia as my motherland but I hate the unfair treatment to us , so I leave ….for good .weldone palxxxxx
Reply : I really didn’t do anything. I just showed up and hung around. There were many who walked all the way to Istana.
I spoke too soon, I’ve been blog hopping and actually there were quite a number of Chinese who attended, just that I didn’t see many. They walked to the Istana. But more is always good. :) Anyway, even if they didn’t attend, many had the intention and want change. Many cars that passed by, honk us in support even tho they weren’t involved in the walk.
Comment by pearly — 11 November 2007 @ 6:14 pm
p/s that bowl of curry mee look so yummy heheh
Reply : It only looks yummy but taste so so. Not my kind of curry. Just like drinking santan! :P
Comment by pearly — 11 November 2007 @ 6:16 pm
Your photos captured the essence of the whole incident. I mean what the hell for wasting all those taxpayers’ money just to stop some ppl from delivering a letter to His Majesty.
Well, you seem to have enjoyed your day out and I thoroughly enjoyed your commentary of it! :-)
Reply : Yeah, if they could mobilize that many officers to try to prevent the rally from happening, why can’t they do the same in JB or other areas with high crime rate!
To be honest, I really enjoyed it. And if there is another rally that is peaceful and of similiar cause then I would attend again.
Glad u enjoyed the commentary.
Comment by AM — 11 November 2007 @ 7:11 pm
I read the news. I was at Kampung.. Seems such a big incident ya..
Nobody is being caught right..?
Reply : U sure or not u at Kampung? I tot I saw u inside Dataran Merdeka climbing the flag pole! Hahahaha. Just joking ya. :P
Comment by keeyit — 11 November 2007 @ 11:45 pm
wow… i didn’t know it was such a big thing, i was at plaza daman rakuzen waiting for my girlfriends for a birthday lunch which turned into high tea cum dinner!
two of them were stuck in the jam for hours and only arrived at 4pm… sien…
Reply : Many who didn’t know about it had to spend most of their time inside their cars stuck in a jam.
ps: How was Rakuzen? Is it the same as the other Rakuzen (forgot where oledi).
Comment by evelyn — 11 November 2007 @ 11:52 pm
I was over the border getting my car scanned for bombs…
damn kaw syok la. Missed everything damnit :(
Reply : What were u doing over the border? *Ahem!*
Dun worry, another coming soon. :P
Comment by Jonny — 12 November 2007 @ 1:06 am
Ayeeee… do you mind translating this.. “Boss, macam mana mau pigi Dataran Merdeka?”
Paiseh.. I don understand malay… :P
Ohyes.. the laksa looks delicious… Hmmm..
Reply : Hahaha… sorry yah, forgot to provide translation. It means, “Boss, how do I go to Dataran Merdeka?”. The guys with me thought that it would be hilarious if someone asked the police right in front of Dataran Merdeka and said they would buy me curry laksa if I did that. But the laksa was a disappointment.
Comment by Jasmine — 12 November 2007 @ 7:41 am
3000 or 30000? Depending on the media reporting it. Whether its the vernacular papers, the foreign media or blogs. Blogs probably give the most impartial reports but then again, that depends on which blog yah anot? The local media take us for fools for trying to sweep this under the carpet. It will only serve to anger the people more. Your captions are damn amusing. Hahaha.
Reply : Unfortunately there will be some really ignorant people who believe the papers. Heard some guys this morning at the coffeeshop saying, “Ceh, only 4000 attend only what!”
Comment by mumsgather — 12 November 2007 @ 10:25 am
Mott BLUFF WAN.. that day i checked she tengah wearing red undies!!! eh who wanna lock her up with her big tummy eh?
hahhahaah
Seriously, I salute u.
So who were the comedians and actors that went…
Reply : U sure she got wear ah? ;)
The comedians I dun know their names but if u see their faces u will sure know them. Actors are those local fellas acted in those Pimai Pimai TangTu, Gerak Khas TV drama, those fellas I also dun know their names. :P
Comment by sasha — 12 November 2007 @ 11:54 am
Wah! The west really so happening wan! I am happy that u r still around blogging! Tq for this informative post! I do hope something will cum put of this gathering! Have a nice day!
Reply : Happening ah? Ceh, u can organize one also wat. :P
Comment by HORNY ANG MOH — 12 November 2007 @ 12:23 pm
bravo adrian!
i didn’t think that the police would over-react in such a manner. 2 friends coming up to penang for work on saturday got majorly delayed by the road blocks etc…
anyways, something big definitely happened. and we’ll see what develops from here on.
and your captions are really funny!! i wonder wat the FRU guy will reply if you had asked him how to go to dataran merdeka??! heehehee!
Reply : Hahaha.. I answered ur last question in my latest post.
Comment by lingzie — 12 November 2007 @ 3:03 pm
the photos are really nice and funny when u put on those speech on their behalf, its good that you stood out althou, not the majority crowd, but it shows that u are a true Malaysian….
Reply : Glad u enjoyed it.
Aiyoh, I didn’t do anything leh. A true Malaysian is someone who cares about what’s happening in this country, I feel. Even if u didn’t walk, u’re still a true Malaysian if u care.
Comment by niss — 12 November 2007 @ 5:24 pm
Information Minister Datuk Seri Zainuddin Maidin said this :
“Malaysia is not Myanmar or Pakistan; it is a democratic country.”
I almost fell of my chair. It is democratic when we keep our mouths shut and nod our heads at everything.
Source: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/11/11/nation/19444042&sec=nation
Reply : You should go over to YouTube and watch the interview. With his broken Malay Engrish. Hilarious!
Comment by Jess — 12 November 2007 @ 9:01 pm
U asking the police for directions to dataran was just hilarious. How cum u din show that pic?
Zai has been down wit fever since yesterday.
Reply : Hallo, that’s bcoz u didn’t take that pic! It wasn’t on the memory card.
Yeah, I think his throat is bad. Could have been the gas.
Comment by justin — 12 November 2007 @ 9:22 pm
you made me laughed like an idiot sitting here with all those captions and the way you wrote this…. so what did the police told u after you asked the question?
indeed… many chinese are still complacent about their life… a change is not necessary… heck, some were complaining about how they miss their lunch appointment cos of the jam and blame the rally. truly fucked up.
Reply : Hahaha.. glad u had a laugh. The reply is in the latest post.
Yeah! Some blamed it on the “unruly” rioters! They didn’t think it was the roadblocks by the police.
Comment by zewt — 13 November 2007 @ 12:27 am
Errmm… I’m just interested in your .. your… your… your Canon S5 IS!! Heh heh…
Sorry to make u potong stim if you were expecting sumting else… :P
I’m very tempted to get this camera altho’ I’m also very tempted to get a DSLR but the thing is, I lug my camera wherever I go, so bringing along a DSLR everywhere I go is just tak betul… tho’ my bag is very besar…
Anyway, I feel that the ‘down’ side of this Canon S5 IS is the 4 biji battery… aisay… so many geh… oops, so cheong hei pulak… actually wanted to ask you, what’s your ‘feel’ with this camera?
Sorry again so cheong hei…
Reply : I faced the same dilemma when I was thinking of buying it. The S5 is still quite big compared to the normal point & shoot cams. I told myself I didn’t care, I’m determined to bring it everywhere I go. Not the case.
Resolution and photo quality wise can’t compare to a DSLR but to get that kind of zoom on a DSLR, u’d need to fork out some major $$$$.
The S5’s downside is blurring and photo quality is not so good (a lot of grain) in low light conditions. If u look at the helicopter photo, u can quite visibly see the grain inside the copter.
The battery is actually something I like. I suggest investing in rechargeables. Even if it runs out of juice, just pop in 4 normal batteries and u’re still good to go. Something I couldn’t do with my previous camera. Had to look for power socket to charge.
The other plus points is the swivel LCD. I dun have to face u to shoot u. Which comes in very useful when there is a leng lui sitting opposite … err, nehmind.
The best thing is the 12x zoom. Checking out leng luis from far is very possible now. Heck, that’s what the guys in my office do anyway. If only Canon would built in xray vision as well. Then we’d have the perfect camera! :P
Comment by angel — 13 November 2007 @ 9:01 pm
Hey, thanks for the in-depth reply! Yes, the 12x zoom was also something that I wanted from this camera but aisay… that grainy & blur pic down side is sumthing I didn’t expect from a Powershot woh… I thot only IXUS models got this grainy & blur problem…
I think I’m gonna look for someone who’s using Panasonic FZ18 pulak… this one got 18x zoom :)
Yes, I understand what you meant by the normal batteries. I’m very kiasu, I have spare battery for my current Lumix… and also for my hp… :P
The swivel LCD is indeed a plus point for this Canon ;) no need so susah take own pics… :D
Anyway, thanks again for the sexplanation! You’ve been very kind :) (altho’ at the same time try to sound hamsap haha)
Reply : Yeah, I considered the FZ18 but can’t remember why I chose S5 instead.
I wasn’t trying to sound hamsap, I am hamsap! :P
Comment by angel — 14 November 2007 @ 3:04 am
great photos there man! and those captions.. haha! hmm, ya, from the BERSIH photos around the internet, can hardly see any non malays. they are the one complaining a lot but always when it’s time to walk the talk they lost their balls.. how sad. the government have nothing to say after the march went on peacefully contrary to what pm and his gang hoped for - some violence, riots. so now they keep on saying it’s and illegal gathering. how ironic, when BERSIH applied for permit 2 months before the march, they rejected it. BERSIH appealed and rebutted all the funny stupid reasons by the police, still they rejected. and yet they keeping telling people to apply for permit.. only to reject it. crap!
Reply : If a person doesn’t get his news from the internet and only reads the papers, they would think that Bersih didn’t apply for a permit and gathered illegally. They won’t know that they actually applied but the authorities rejected them many times. So to such a person, the Bersih movement is creating trouble in Msia. Creating unnecessary problems for the people. That’s what the govt owned media is trying to do.
After thinking about it, I feel that the Chinese that were there knew about it thru the internet. The Malays, the majority of them were informed by their parties, PAS & Keadilan, that’s why there were so many Malays. But I don’t disagree with u that there were many Chinese who were intimidated by the threats issued prior to the rally. I don’t blame them, my family was worried for me as well.
Comment by bongkersz — 15 November 2007 @ 6:52 pm
Hi! I found this post from google. This is very funny stuffs. Very different from the other blogs on Bersih.
Thanks.
Reply : Errr…. why u thanking me ah? Hahahahah.. walauapa pun, terima kasih ye.
Comment by Nora — 23 April 2008 @ 2:29 pm