Remember remember, the 10th of November..

Written on 10th November 2007

Last night there were roadblocks everywhere. Not just within Kuala Lumpur too. Roadblocks all over the country. From Sungai Petani to Melaka...hmmm...does this mean the 'powers that be' are shivering in their ittie bittie booties? Fearful of the impending march?

Today, my friends, I did something for my country. It wasn't an entirely selfless act for I acted for my own benefit too. But overall, I did it for all of us who call Malaysia 'home'. Home of the brave (to borrow a phrase) I'd like to call us from now on. What did I do? Well, I attended the BERSIH rally of course!

Today, Malaysians from all walks of life attended a gathering to demand a reform of the judiciary and electoral system. Remember that, ladies and gentlemen. And put it down in your memory as the day that we, Malaysians, stood up and demanded our rights as the people of this country.

Getting there

My day started uneventfully...a little bit of gardening, a little bit of cooking, a little of this, a little bit of that. Then my 'darling' came by to pick me up.

I was dressed in yellow. "You're not wearing that," he said. "You better change your clothes now or we're not going."

Coming from an extremely mild mannered fellow, a man who never demands anything of me, I had to heed. Plus, I knew he was madly protective of me...you see, I tend to get swept up in emotions when I'm passionate about something. I tend to be too bold for my own good and too prepared to 'martyr' myself. He knows that, I accept it about myself. So caution is needed. We did not know what to expect.

One thing's for sure, we were thinking of explanations that we would tell our moms from the police lock up. We went anyways, knowing that we would probably end up being beaten and spending the night in jail. We were not prepared for it, but at least we were realistic enough to consider the possibility.

So we went by car. I had a game plan. Being the more "streetwise" between the two of us, I was the planner, the schemer, the mastermind. And my baby follows me, trusting my judgements, trusting me to lead the way.

Screeecchh! We got stuck. Thank God we left early to attend the gathering (which was scheduled at 3pm) So being the smart ass that I was, I navigated. Left here, right there...keep to the left. We got out of traffic and had to park at the LRT station at Bangsar. Although it wasn't my plan to attend this gathering via public transportation, we had to make do. We embarked the LRT towards Masjid Jamek.

In my heart, I was praying the whole way (since last night too) that there would be thousands like me. I prayed that Malaysians would not be scared off by the threatening police statements warning us not to attend this rally.

We have arrived!

I was pleasantly surprised by the turnout. There were thousands upon thousands of Malaysians in the street standing up for what is right! I must say, THEY HAVE BALLS. Big solid metal ones.

As both me and my darling disembarked the LRT, we were rudely greeted by the pungent smell of tear gas (smelled something like sulfur, for those who are curious). Being the fragile flower that he is, my significant other immediately began his bouts of sneezing and wheezing.

Wow, I thought. I didn't think it would come to this so early in the rally. There were policemen everywhere. People in wet yellow Ts (it had been raining) stirred in broken ranks to left and right side of Masjid Jamek.

How many people in yellow do you see? Yet, they still launched tear gas. Shame, shame tak malu!

Being near an LRT station, there were many pedestrians and commuters around including pregnant women and children. The people in yellow T-shirts were relatively quiet. Just standing around watching and waiting for the time to go to the palace. Very few of them were on the road, mostly were in the shelter of the surrounding buildings and walkways. It was drizzling.

Scouting the area, I realised that we were surrounded. No cars were allowed to pass through as the police barricaded the area and FRU blocked the roads. We were completely cut off. I didn't understand this at first, Why would they cut off the roads? Why were they surrounding us?

There were so many trapped inside Masjid Jamek as the FRU were blocking the gate. I later heard that people coming for prayer were turned away as well. Tsk tsk.

Then it dawned on me, they were doing that to stop us from leaving Masjid Jamek to walk to the palace. Why? Everybody in yellow wanted to leave to make their way to the palace, and the 'powers that be' were stopping us. Why?

I wanted to get nice photo shots of the FRU and patriots in yellow, so we shuffled here and there trying and testing out the pictures. I was with some photographers in front of the FRU when...thud, thud, thud, thud...then I heard yells and people started running in all directions.

Tear gas. One landed a few feet away from me. My darling, being a pampered city boy, panicked. "Run sayang!". We both held our breaths.

Seconds before they fired tear gas. Do you see any provocation?

"Vijay, walk calmly! Don't run! Brisk walk, brisk walk! Don't! Run!" I yelled.

Our eyes started tearing and stinging and we couldn't see where we were going. Every breath was painful. But thank God for the rain, and our wet clothes, the smoke subsided quickly due to the heavy wet air.

We quickly moved to the safety of the surrounding buildings in Masjid Jamek area.

"This is urban warfare. It'll be very hard for them to hurt us as a collective unit. Lots of nooks and cranies to hide in," I said smugly.

"Oh, ok."

I looked at my watch. It was 3.05pm. We were both soaked and still tearing up and coughing from the tear gas (guys, seriously, a damp cloth over your face really really helps). My poor darling (being deaf) didn't hear me when i yelled at him to cover his face with his T-shirt, so he was drooling and quite snotty.

Going to the Masjid Negara (National Mosque)

We better get to the Masjid Negara soon. Or (God forbid) they'll leave without us! So we tried to walk towards Dataran Merdeka to walk towards the the mosque. Just the two of us. The police officers immediately stopped us at one of their barricades.

Police: Ni nak pegi mana ni?
Vijay: Nak pegi sana, bang. (ok at this point, i roll my eyes for all of you...doh!)
Police: Tak boleh. Tak boleh. Lalu jalan lain.

For those of you who don't know - yes, it doesn't reflect in my posts here - I am the master of mind mapping. Well, road mapping, I mean. So we went through the back alleys and short cuts to go to Pos Malaysia HQ. Then from there, we could cross over to Masjid Negara to join the masses.

By the time we got there (yes, I burnt some calories) people were already moving towards the Istana. We joined them..always under the watching eyes of the police.

When we were closer to the palace, we were surprised by the presence of men in maroon uniform and berets guiding traffic and people marching to the palace. Who are these people?

On the way to the Palace we were 'protected' by the people in maroon berets. Daulat Tuanku!

Later on, we found out that these were the Unit Amal Malaysia called by the King (no less!) to protect the people marching to his palace. My heart swelled! Thank you, Tuanku!
(I was corrected on this. They were not from the King, they were from PAS. Still, thank you so much!)

To the palace then

Again, we were overwhelmed by the presence of thousands and thousands of bodies in yellow flooding the street in front of the Palace.

Ain't no mountain high enough, ain't no valley low enough,
Ain't no river wide enough, to keep me from getting to you, Tuanku!
Rain or Shine!

Two helicopters were flying in circles above us like vultures and at one time, they almost collided in mid air (it would have been funny, wouldn't it? Well, minus the part where they actually fall on us).

Vultures circling the 'sheep'

Do you think this is low? They actually flew lower.

FRU trucks lined the street in front of the palace blocking any entry. The crowd, I must say, were well behaved. Random takbirs were heard but nothing too instigating. By now I wished I was wearing yellow.


We could see some random people (police) in the crowd looking like 'spies'. Wolves in sheep's clothing.But we were not sheep... we were wildebeest. Fwooaarr....how proud I am, to be a Malaysian today.

Seriously, the 'spies' or 'troublemakers' were so easy to identify. As many of you already know, cops are known for their black leather jackets and their cop-ish posture. One was standing right next to me, complete with a full face helmet. Tak subtle kan? Wearing a full face helmet with a leather jacket on a rainy day standing arms crossed. I quickly got out of his way for fear he might arrest me!

Success!

Suddenly cheers and shouts emanated from the crowd as we witnessed the carriers of the memorandum - PAS' Hadi Awang and Nasharuddin Mat Isa and DAP's Lim Kit Siang and Lim Guan Eng. Moments later, Anwar Ibrahim arrived (apparently on a bike due to deadlocked traffic) and the memorandum was handed to the King's secretary.

I heaved a huge sigh of relief. I did the deed. I did this! I felt good, I might as well have been the one handing over the memorandum. In fact, I wanted to be the one handing it over.

See? Malaysia Boleh! We dispersed peacefully.

Peaceful people dispersing after the deed is done.

Local media reported about 1000-4000 people came. You must be gullible to believe that.
Closer to 50,000 in my estimate.

What was the fuss about anyway? I heard that people traveling into KL were being harassed by the police (because they were wearing beige, yellow, cream colored t shirts). People were being stopped all over the country as far north as Sungai Petani to Melaka (don't know about my other southern compatriots, though).

Here is where I apologise to fellow Malaysians.

Dear fellow Malaysians,

I apologize for the ruckus that this rally has created for you, for it interrupting your daily routines...all in the name of justice. I apologize for those who were stuck in traffic having to witness this great unification of all races and walks of life.

In my defense, the BERSIH rally did NOT cause the traffic jam all over KL. This was caused by the many roadblocks by the police. Yes, we delayed traffic in front of the palace, but that was all. I apologize to those who were harassed by the police when they had nothing to do with this united stand for justice and fairness.

Remember though, that this sacrifice that you made today, was a sacrifice towards a greater good. This may be the beginning of positive change for this country. This is a sacrifice you willingly or unwillingly made for your children who are the future of this country. This is the price you paid towards a better, brighter, fairer Malaysia.

Seems such a small price, doesn't it?

So if you want to judge me for my beliefs, if you want to judge me for standing up against injustice, if you want to judge me for standing up for fairness and equality, so be it. Sixty years ago, there were smaller groups of people out there who did what I was doing (the Hartal) who stood against an injustice only they saw, who paid the price for their beliefs.

My sins, as you see it now, may be too large a price to pay. But it is a price I am willing to pay for our future.

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."

- Thomas Jefferson

Don't worry, it's not over. It is far from over. If you love this country, if you call this country your home, don't fret. For those who wanted to be there but couldn't, don't turn the page yet, this chapter is far from finished.