Malaysians Say The Darndest Things!

Cops Forced To Use Water Cannons To Disperse Protestors. Really?

January 8, 2008

On Saturday, a candlelight vigil organized by GMI (Abolish ISA Movement) was held to show solidarity with the detainees of ISA. As was reported earlier, a permit was applied for, but rejected by the police (no surprise there). But the candlelight vigil went on anyway, for Malaysians have the constitutional right to peaceful assembly, and this candlelight vigil was a peaceful assembly (as I have mentioned countless times, assemblies stop being peaceful when the FRU and police comes into the picture). As expected, the police ended the night by sending in the calvary, and deploying the dreaded water cannon.

The news desks ran the story the next day, trying to depict the sad and helpless situation the police was in. Here is The Star’s headline and excerpts from the news article:

Cops forced to use water cannon to disperse protesters
KUALA LUMPUR: Police were forced (yes, TERPAKSA) to use water cannon on a group of protesters at Jalan Lebuh Pasar here when the crowd refused to budge after repeated warnings.

They were part of some 300 protestors who had earlier gathered near Dataran Merdeka to participate in a candlelight vigil to show solidarity for those held under the Internal Security Act.

Abolish ISA Movement (AIM) president Syed Ibrahim Syed Noh and committee member S. Arutchelvan led the vigil that started at about 8pm.

Dang Wangi OCPD Asst Comm Zulkarnain Abdul Rahman, who had instructed his men to barricade Dataran Merdeka, ordered the protesters to disperse.

Although Arutchelvan negotiated with ACP Zulkarnain to allow them to carry out the vigil, they were told that they had 10 minutes to disperse.

The crowd, however, defied the order and held the candlelight vigil outside the barricade, near the Jalan Sultan Hishamuddin junction.

At 8.35pm, the police moved in to disperse them. The crowd then fled to Jalan Lebuh Pasar Besar.

The group was then joined by Bersih (Coalition for Free and Fair Elections) members, who all wore yellow t-shirts and head banners, and jeered at the policemen.

ACP Zulkarnain said the crowd again refused to break up despite repeated orders.

He said police waited another 10 minutes (by then the crowd had moved to Jalan Lebuh Pasar) before they deployed 50 Federal Reserve Unit (FRU) personnel to carry out crowd control measures.

The water canon was used on the crowd.

The crowd, who had run for cover when police fired the water cannon, regrouped at Jalan Lebuh Pasar.

About an hour later, police charged at them and broke the gathering.

ACP Zulkarnain said they picked up several suspects at Jalan Melaka and Lebuh Ampang for questioning but released them with warnings.

Wow, I got to hand it to TheStar. For anyone who has just a passing interest in such matters, they would easily be fooled into thinking that the police were basically helpless, and the only thing they could do was to send in the FRU and water cannons. I guess they never heard of restraint.

Anyway, the purpose of this blog is to highlight media bias, and so I leave it to you to view some videos and read some first hand accounts into what happened. Then you decide la ok.

First off, view this excellent video, which will give you a chronological order of what happened. Note that by the time water cannons were used, most of the crowd were already dispersed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dk-o-3Yovgg

Then, you view the following video by TheStar, and see how they manage to depict the police having to use water cannons on all the attendees of the candlelight vigil by using very creative editing techniques. If you just had breakfast and don’t want to puke your guts, skip it. This is what you call SPIN.
http://videos.thestar.com.my/default.aspx?vid=800

Then read this letter: The Candlelight Vigil… an activity in futility?

You could also view Malaysiakini TV for interviews with the organizers, for an alternative view from The Star.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=aCCA7r2zzOM

Having seen and read other accounts with your own eyes, do you think this piece of reporting by The Star is fair, or more closer to a piece of crap? I vote for the latter.

TheStar prints the darndest things!

You Might Find These Interesting

• Bersih Gathering: Masjid Jamek Police Violence
• HINDRAF Rally Thwarted By Police Violence
• No Tear Gas And Water Cannon Used At Batu Caves Temple
• Indian Temple Demolition Pics
• Tourist Dollars More Important Than Our Freedom?

Thank you for reading Malaysians Say The Darndest Things! If you like what you just read, you should consider subscribing to this blog in a feedreader. Alternatively, you could also subscribe via email, and you will get a daily digest of the day's posts. Your email is strictly protected and will never be used for spam or marketing purposes.