The last one week in retrospect.
Manchester United lost the EPL in ridiculous fashion. I am deeply disappointed.
Diablo 3 was released. I was very elated.
Chelsea won the Champion League. Say what?
All I can say is… I’m glad Diablo 3 has been released. Heh.
BBIAB!
So, it’s been slightly more than a week after the Bersih 3.0 gathering.
It’s also been an extremely hectic 10 days. Hence, me being out of action today. I blame it on age. It seems I need more rest than I used to, sad to say the least.
Anyways, Bersih 3.0 last Saturday was everything everyone has been saying, minus the conspiracy theories. I’ll share what I went through, and mind you, I tried to keep it brief.
First of all, I left for the gathering pretty late. 1.59pm was my exact time of departure.
My friend and I left directly from Klang, where we were witnessing a marriage registration, directly to Bangsar LRT. Smooth sailing all the way and we got there in no time. We even managed to find decent parking nearby, bought multiple tokens (one for the trip there, one for the trip back and began our little adventure into the heart of KL.
I was half expecting security into the city to be pretty tight. That obviously didn’t materialize and we arrived at Pasar Seni without much incident.
After arriving, we walked and wandered around for a bit. There were throngs of people in yellow all happy and joyous as we walked and smiled at each other all around.
We managed to find our way to Lebuh Pasar Besar and found ourselves next to the Bar Council. At the bridge, the police had already setup a barricade and had positioned themselves behind it. It didn’t look serious, and the mood was still uplifting.
I bumped into a few friends there, we stood around, chatted, laughed, negotiated prices for drinks with vendors who were there.
“Ala, so anticlimax la, we came after all the fun, nothing going on now”, I told my friend.
Little did I know…
All of a sudden, there were chants saying “Sudah buka! Sudah buka!!” and people were cheering, but nobody was moving. Apparently, the barricade was moved, and I watched as the police line retreated to the other side of the bridge.
Then the FRU water truck backed up, rang its bell ONCE, and burst across the bridge like it was trying to ram someone whilst at the same time blasting laced water at us. Obviously we and the crowd quickly ducked into the alley behind the Bar Council. The water truck continued moving forward spraying the chemically laced water people in every direction.
We were mobbed by the surprised crowd and shoved into the alley as well. I resorted to calming the mob down by repeatedly calling out for them to relax. Immediately through the calling out, I could sense the countenance of the people relax and calm came against the frenzy.
The water truck moved forward and as I moved to the front of the alley, my friend(s) shouted for me to come back into the alley.
Here, all the years of video gaming paid off. In that moment, against all instinct, but with the fullness of simulated tactics inside my head, I knew we had to get out of the alley! It was a corner we had no advantage in.
I called for my friend to come with me, saying that we HAD to get out of the alley no matter what. If we stayed there, we’d be pinned down.
My friend heeded my advice and we stormed out of the alley, skipping past the water truck whose attention was on other side of the road away from us. The truck backed up as the crowd regathered chanting “BERSIH BERSIH BERSIH!” and there was a sense of suddenness and a spoonful of outrage at the sudden uncalled for use of force.
This was quickly swallowed by the thumping sounds of tear gas being fired. One canister dropping on top of UOB, which sparked sarcastic laughter and name calling. Little did I know, the FRU actually had fired a dozen canisters.
Here, my video game experience worked against me. I thought I’d only be affected by the tear gas if I actually was in the smoke that was being emitted from the canisters.
We hung around, but 10-30 seconds into that, I finally caught whiff of the tear gas. The effects began with a spicy like feeling in my throat, which was by then too late for me to put on my mask (which would have been useless anyways, since it wasn’t a chemical proof face mask).
The stinging would then course upwards towards my nose and eyes. By then, my eyes were watering, and I was struggling to breath. But I knew I had to remain calm, and figure out which was more important of the both. I decided it would be sight since I could still breathe somehow. I looked around, both sides of the road had tear gas by now.
Then, out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of a shop shutter half open. I made the dash for it, shouting for my friend in the process. He turned, saw the motioning of my hand and rushed after me. We ducked into the shop with another malay dude, and the shopkeeper slammed the shutters down.
By now, the tear gas was in full effect. I quickly popped out the iodized salt crystals in the quick storage compartment of my bag, and started chucking the salts down my throat. At the same time, passed it to my friend, who did the same. I quickly asked for permission to use the toilet and went straight to the back of the shop. We spent a good 5 minutes washing off the effects of the tear gas, rubbing salt over our eyes and faces and helping the malay chap who came in with us.
Knowing I needed a little bit more of something as contingency later, I asked the shopkeeper if I could buy a lemon from him. He gave it to me for free. :) The shopkeeper by now was quite ready to leave already, and so we did when the coast was clear. My friend and I ran outside, ducked into some stairwell, I cut open the lemon, squeezed it into the bottom half of our masks just in case we needed them later.
When the coast was clear, we made the blitz for it, out to the main road with traffic and rejoined the tens and thousands of supporters in yellow. It was good to be back in the crowd again, where we met up with people and exchanged thoughts and outrages.
We then started to leave the area, picking up more news about friends at other places that were experiencing similar situations. One of our friends was hit in the leg by a canister and injured. Trying to get help to him was quite futile, and I was quite mad when Gerakan put me on hold after finding out we were at the gathering.
With Pasar Seni LRT packed, mobbed and apparently “closed”, we walked to KL Sentral, had KFC, exchanged more thoughts, and coincidentally managed to catch the Bersih committee press conference.
Shortly after that, we left back for our homes.
I went back unafraid, but I felt scarred.
I felt the emotions coursing through me even until today. Every time I read the news, my anger spikes at the outrage and audacity of the days events. And with all the conspiracy theories, nonsensical responses from the Government of the day, stories and so much more - it is all the more critical why we must understand the need to for justice, but without favor towards any parties.
I shall reserve these thoughts perhaps for my next post. But in the mean time, I shall continue digesting them, and hoping that Malaysia and her citizens will someday be treated with dignity, justice, equality and truth.
Wow. What a crazy day.
Went out in the morning for meetings.
Went home, took my dog to the vet, took him back home.
Went out again to grab my suit at MidValley. That was insane… having to drive there, park, get to Seed in Jusco, renew my J-Card, go back to the suit, try it on, try it on with the pants, decide on it, wait for the new pairs to come, pay for them at counter, return to Seed to own it, get back to the car park, get out and get home. All within the hour.
Of course, once I got home, I realized I wasn’t very sure about the timing of my Avengers showtime. Can you believe it. For the first time in my life, I’m not sure about the timing of my movie. =.=
So, in the end, I had to hop it over to the cinema to get the timing sorted since there were two timings mentioned on the purchase receipts. Talk about inconsistent. Even the manager had a little trouble trying to explain their system to me. Thankfully, that was sorted out though. So, Avengers… ASSEMMMBLEEEE!! :D
And to cap the night off, a little pasta and cake. That was sublime just enjoying a meal in the mall alone for a change. Heh. Got back home, and trying to keep it simple.
I must rant.
I am disappointed in my Manchester United’s draw tonight. I had high hopes of moving ahead tonight on the table.
Sometimes it feels like the EPL is just one big shimmy drama show. For the sake of viewership and ratings, they make the games really tight.
Here’s hoping we win next week. It’ll be huge.
Win or lose we’re always behind you lads! But let’s hear it for a win!!!
