The Kuala Lumpur Traveler

Bersih march to Istana Negara: What really happened Part 1

by CJCM on November 10th, 2007

Although there were stern warnings by the police and Pak Lah, various pre-cautionary measures taken by the government and the police, thousands of concerned citizens showed up in Kuala Lumpur today. And yes, Kuala Lumpur was painted quite yellow today…. thanks to Bersih for that.

I just came back home from Kuala Lumpur 30 minutes ago. And I am so tired. I was there to discover what really happened at the Bersih gathering where it was supposed to bring together 100,000 concerned Malaysian citizens to join Bersih in the march to the Palace. And in one word, all I can conclude about the march is…. Awesome!!!

I have so much to tell, but I will do that in a series of postings. I also have a few still pictures to share but I also some videos to show. However, the videos will be first uploaded to YouTube and you know how slow that would be.

For this Part 1 of What Really Happened at Bersih march, I will let you see and judge for yourself whether the power that be had any success in its effort to silence people’s voice.

Before I left my home, I looked out of my house and the sky was quite dark. I knew it was going to rain.. and surely rain it did. The rain was however a blessing in disguise. I will explain about that later in my other postings.

I went to Kuala Lumpur by riding by motorbike because I do not want to be caught in traffic jam. Sure enough, when I reach Taman Tun Dr Ismail, it was jam like mad and I found out later that it was caused by the police roadblock in front of Phileo Damansara. It was heavily raining at that time but the policemen and policewomen were in their shelters, leaving the roadblock unattended causing huge traffic jam.

On my way back… when I reach Technology Park at Bukit Jalil near the Petronas station, I saw a huge traffic jam building up on the way to Kuala Lumpur… the cause was also a police roadblock just after the Petronas service station leading to Kuala Lumpur. I found out that the jam stretched all the way to Seri Kembangan toll.. maybe even further. In my future poostings I will show you, despite the massive turnout, the traffic in Kuala Lumpur was not that bad. If there was any jam, that was because of police roadblocks… not because of the people’s march.

Enough of all that for now… here goes the pictures….

LRT stop in front of Masjid Jamek is where all the actions began.

Not many yellow colours yet at the beginning! The rains helped many people bypassed the police roadblocks. The crowd started to build up just before Zohor prayer.

Yellow umbrellas were bought from JukeBox..! The umbrellas must have been sold out today.

The policemen and policewomen were everywhere to greet the people.

So were the famous red trucks which carried some water for the marchers! Wait till you see the videos when the crowds were showered by waters from these trucks.

The traffic were smooth despite the crowds, but where the roads were blocked… the jam was inevitable!

Waiting for the others to come…!

The first stop was at the Masjid Jamek. The people came from north, south, east and west. Tousands of them thronged the mosque to perform Zohor prayers. Those from outstations also performed Asar prayer Jamak Taqdim… and there were many of them…. men, women, young and old.. children included.

After the Zohor prayer, you started to see yellow shirts. They had kept the shirts in the bags and changed them after the prayers. Those who didnt get to buy the shirts before could get it right there in the mosque.. RM13 per shirt.

Police stood by with the machine gun…..

2pm…. the traffic still smooth infront of Masjid Jamek LRT station …

The roads leading to Dataran Merdeka were completely sealed in all directions. Dataran Merdeka which was supposed to be the gathering point was just unreachable….

The cops were taking shelter under the LRT while the crowds were waiting just across the road ….

In my next postings I will share with you some videos that show how serious the people want the change to happen. It will also show, unfortunately, how bad the present government wants to surpress the people from delivering their voices… the voices of the people.

Not everyone were fortunate enough to make themselves present in Kuala LUmpur on this historic day for many reasons. These pictures and videos will also not be featured in the mainstream media and televisions for obvious reasons. The real stories of today’s march to the Istana Negara will only be told in blogs. Please do not hesitate to share these stories with friends and relatives by using the ‘Email this post’ feature at the end of these postings.

To stay up to date with more news from Kuala Lumpur is Home, you are also encouraged to subscribe via email, which is available on the top right hand side of this blog…. happy reading!!

[tags]Bersih, election, Istana Negara[/tags]

Note:
As I am writing this part, the web traffic to my blog has exceed 1000 unique visitors and has clocked well over 1500 page views. Malaysiakini was totally unreachable due to high traffic…so is Malaysia Today. The rest of Malaysia must be really hungry to know the truth… stay tuned…

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POSTED IN: Bersih