This is it.
I’m overwhelmed by the sudden influx of traffic. I don’t exactly have updates and I hope everyone checked out the links that I listed. By the way Aljazeera has already reported on the rally…it should be a matter of time before other international media follow suit.
I wish everyone on the streets and everyone on the internet looking for news all the best.
Sleep calls. I’ll check again in the several hours when everything should die down.
Update
I notice the sudden traffic to my blog. Yes I am awake at 2.54 am in the morning to know what is going on.
Good websites to go to now:
http://uhaveachoice.wordpress.com/environment/
http://powerpresent.blogspot.com/2007/11/bersih-gathering-is-street-democracy.html
http://drxavier.wordpress.com/
http://soniarandhawa.blogspot.com/
Original post:
I do not know what is going on. The last I heard is that the police has surrounded all the meeting points and Dataran Merdeka itself. Water cannons have been used. The rally is on.
Our PM doesn’t believe in street demonstrations – apparently they’re never peaceful.
What a third world mentality.
I’ve been pretty occupied lately with campus life. Plus blogging was too much of a procrastinating tool, but then again everything on the internet is. I have however been keeping up with news from home and it frustrates me to hear the same ol’ BS being repeated again and again. I don’t know why we let ourselves being governed by ridiculous politicians. Honestly, for all the “pride” we put into our country being so “modern”, “cultural” and “progressive”, we are clearly an embarrassment to the rest of the world. Not that anyone in the government noticed.
Just look at the way our government react to any dissent – blatant demonization. What kind of a democracy automatically makes an attempt to silence those who disagree? Aren’t different opinions vital for the government to always be on their toes? Aren’t they suppose to be represent all Malaysians or are they all too intoxicated with power that what they say is what we are suppose to want? I find it bemusing that they can discuss about “inappropriate” uniforms and radio station names when there are clearly more important issues to address.
Defeatists say the opposition is too weak to do anything. Well it might be true now, but not doing anything is simply immoral. We need to steer back to the right direction.
To everyone joining the rally which is bound to start within a few hours, I salute you.
The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear
— Aung San Suu KyiNever forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal
— Martin Luther King Jr.
Ready?
Get set,
GO!
What in the world is Critical Mass?
Well, according to critical-mass.info:
Critical Mass is a monthly bicycle ride to celebrate cycling and to assert cyclists’ right to the road. The idea started in San Francisco in September 1992 and quickly spread to cities all over the world.
Critical Mass has a different flavor from city to city — there’s a big variety in size, respect of traffic laws (or lack thereof), interaction with motorists, and intervention by police. So if you want to know more about Critical Mass, you’ll really need to find out what your local ride is like.
Critical Mass has no leaders, and no central organization licenses rides. In every city that has a CM ride, some locals simply picked a date, time, and location for the ride and publicized it, and thus the ride was born.
CM is an idea and an event, not an organization. You can’t write to “Critical Mass”
Some CM riders try to tie up traffic as much as possible and be otherwise confrontational with motorists. Such riders are missing the point about Critical Mass. CM is a celebration of cycling, not a war against motorists. CM is about asserting our right to the road, not denying others their right to the road. Those who want to play juvenile games are encouraged to stay at home instead.
Critical Mass in a bigger city…
Picture above from Bikes take over the Streets. The rest are mine!
Oh well I guess there weren’t 20 000 of us. But cycling as the sun went down sure was fun!
College not combat — troops out now!
This is what democracy looks like!
Hey Bush what did you say? How many kids did you kill today?
Campus Anti-War Network (CAN) organized an anti-war die-in today on campus. It was suppose to start at 5pm but my class ended early at 3.45pm. So I practically waited around the Union by myself the entire time. I just love covering events with my Canon and it felt like something that I just had to do. And of course I just had to join in with the little red armbands they were giving out.
At around 5pm people started standing around around the Alma Mater. The whole thing started with a few speeches made by the participating organizations like CAN, The Green Party, Iraq Veterans Against the War and a few others (Sorry, I’m not exactly a journalist). The first picture below is actually one of the leaders of CAN and he happens to be my roommate’s friend. Yea Pete!
Before we marched into two groups for the planned die-in, everyone of course started shouting anti-war chants to get the anti-war mood going on. Then of we go! There were like around fifty of us (or more?). I suck at estimating the number of people in a crowd.
The die-in basically happened in two different areas of Green Street. First was just a block away from the Alma Mater and as we approached the next road, everyone stopped to basically lie down on the sidewalk as the rest of the protesters chalked everyone’s silhouettes and chanted anti-war slogans to passing cars. I was snapping away. Some pedestrians were literally walking over some of the protesters as they lay on the floor. There were also cars honking in approval with their drivers giving us thumbs ups. It was great.
As soon as everyone lying down was chalked, the protesters had their eyes on another area to “die-in”. The intersection of Green and Wright. Every few minutes (maybe was it a couple?) all of the traffic lights would turn red and the pedestrians (or in this case the protesters) had exactly 28 seconds to go to the middle of the road, lie down, and maybe get chalked, rise up again and scramble back to the safety of the sidewalk. This was definitely the best part. To take some of the pictures, I had to literally lie down amongst the protesters. I love the picture marked “Hardcore” below. He truly was indeed.
However, they were still at it at 6.15pm and I had to answer a couple of nature’s call. So I rushed back to the lovely bicycle Larissa gave me to use and managed to take a picture of the Alma Mater with red bands on both her wrists on the way.
An evening (or is it afternoon?) well spent.
I was at my first ever public protest. I’d like to join one at home.
Shmarrred in Chambana-land 