For two months, the Red Shirts threatened Bersih 5’s nationwide convoy with thuggish behaviour. But thanks to heavy police blockades, yesterday’s rally went on generally smoothly.
WHEN 25-year-old Nobi (her nickname) got out of the Masjid Jamek LRT station, she turned a little pale.
Wearing striking red tee-shirts, she and her small group of friends expected to be able to walk over to Padang Merbok fairly quickly to join the Red Shirts rally there, but not only did they find the roads blocked off, but they were smack in the middle of a sea of yellow Bersih protesters!
Biting her lip, she and her friends linked arms and walked briskly, heads down, through one of the side streets as Bersih protesters – seeing them clad in crimson tops – chanted “Bersih! Bersih!”.
“I was nervous. I’d be lying if I said I was not. But our leader (Bandar Bukit Jalil Branch Umno Youth chief Aliff Tafid) said to just ignore the Yellow Shirts, keep walking and not cause any trouble...,’’ she said as she hurried on.
The police had cordoned off many access roads in the city to avoid supporters of Bersih and Red Shirts from clashing.
So both sides of protestors had to make huge detours to get to where they wanted to go.
And at some parts of the city, especially around Jalan Raja Laut and Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman, groups of Red Shirts and Bersih protesters passed each other, largely without incident, under the watchful eyes of the police who were stationed at many points.
People knew that the police meant business because they could see the visibly-parked FRU trucks at numerous corners of the streets and FRU units on standby.
This was so different from Bersih 4 held last year, where FRU trucks were parked away from the public eye.
Back then, the mood was festive and carnival-like but this time round, it was a bit tense... especially in the morning when people did not know what to expect and were bracing for violence.
Jeremy, who is in his 40s, says it is his first time coming out for a Bersih protest because “it is time to stop being selfish’’.
A number of Bersih leaders including Maria Chin Abdullah, Mandeep Singh and those from the opposition like S. Arutchelvan, Anthony Loke and Ronnie Liu had been detained by the police on Friday.
The police also arrested Red Shirts leaders including head honcho Datuk Seri Jamal Yunos and Razali Zakaria.
But these arrests did not deter people like Jeremy or Nobi.
“When I heard about the arrests, I didn’t have second thoughts about attending the rally. We were already expecting this possibility,” he says.
Jeremy did not bring his wife or his nine-year-old to the rally.
In past rallies, a number of Bersih protesters would bring their children along as if it were a family outing, but this time, it was very obvious that parents kept their children away – just in case things turned ugly. They weren’t taking any chances.
Unlike Bersih 4 which was predominantly Chinese, this time round, while the crowd was mostly Chinese, there was a noticeable presence of Malays and Indians. Among the Red Shirts, there were some Indian and Chinese faces as well.
For 34-year-old Nantha Kumar, he is joining the Red Shirts protest because he says the country was peaceful until Bersih came along and started causing chaos.
“If they don’t come out, there is no need for us to come out,” he says.
He is angry when he hears how Bersih attacks and disrespects the Prime Minister and says they should just wait for the next election if they want change.
Nawi Omar, 62, however, denies that Bersih is causing chaos.
“I am just exercising my right as a Malaysian to do what I believe is best for the country. Our fight is not about one man. It is about cleaning up the whole system,” he says.
So what do those observing the rally have to say about how things turned out yesterday?
Universiti Malaya academic Dr Khoo Ying Hooi says the police exercised a “smart strategy’’ in how they managed the crowd and prevented the Yellow and Red Shirts from clashing.
“Control was good but they blocked off all the roads. This impinges on the rights of protesters to march peacefully.
“The police say they are doing that to prevent a clash. But by blocking all the roads, you are denying the people the right to gather and protest,’’ says Dr Khoo, who specialises in social movement.
She acknowledges that the police were even-handed in their treatment of Bersih and the Red Shirts protestors but insists that “the heavy road closures were unnecessary.’’
“The issue here is the freedom to assemble. And the police are not following international human rights standards in allowing people to protest.
“Bersih gave the police all their routes and meeting points but what they did was to purposely block off every single one of these points to prevent people from converging. This is not right. The police could have just closed off access to Dataran Merdeka and let people from different meeting points converge.”
Bersih, though, did come up with an alternative meeting point to rally, although the call came rather late at about 2pm.
Finding routes in the heart of the city all choked off, making it impossible for protesters to converge, Bersih used social media to urge their supporters to gather at KLCC, where they finally rallied in a large sea of yellow.
Suhakam commisioner Jerald Joseph was on the ground monitoring the situation and he says it was evident from the start that the heavy police presence was to ensure trouble-free rallies.
He points out that “although the police’s role and function is to facilitate a peaceful assembly under the Peaceful Assembly Act (PAA), to a large extent, they hindered instead by setting up the road blockades.’’
“The blockades did not facilitate anything. They just made people walk a longer route under the sun, forcing more of an effort.”
“If people want to congregate at one point, technically according to crowd control, that would be a good thing, rather than letting the protesters run around loose in the city.
“By preventing protesters from converging, you had groups of people in different corners walking up and down wondering what to do. So I think the police’s SOP needs to change a little bit,’’ he says.
Joseph considers the arrest of Bersih 5 and Red Shirts leaders a day before the rally as a poor strategy.
He points out that during a rally, the police would actually need to speak to the leader to tell him or her to direct the crowd to go left, right or stop.
For him, it would have been better for the police to wait for the day after the rally to pick up the leaders rather than during the crucial moments because after all “the effect will still be the same’’.
He notes that during the rally, the police held their line.
“As long as you didn’t breach the barricade, they let you be. They were very sharp in making sure the two groups never had a chance to meet and didn’t get close to each other. That was very good. And they were successful in doing that.’’
So who achieved their goal? Bersih or the Red Shirts?
Joseph says it is not a competition.
“The function of those who called for the rally and the function of a counter-demonstration have two different objectives, so both need to be viewed separately.”
He says that the PAA does recognise counter-demonstration as a function that might emerge when someone wants to put up a defence of a particular issue.
For Bersih, he says, their objective was “to bring Malaysians together to articulate their demands and concerns, whatever these might be’’.
And he says that despite the road closures and the arrest of their leaders, there was a huge turnout. So for him, they were largely successful in doing what they set out to do.
Joseph says for counter-demonstration, the objective can either be based on ideology and principal beliefs or a “dissatisfaction with the other group’s demands.’’
He says the Red Shirts’ objective was the latter.
“But today is not about evaluation of the Red Shirts’ success. Over the last two months, they succeeded in putting fear into the people.
“Today is actually about what they hoped their two months’ action would have done – to dampen the Bersih rally and scare people off.’’
He points out that while counter-demonstrations are allowed in the PAA, those with notions of violence and incitement to hatred should never be allowed to continue or should not be in the same vicinity as the original rally holders.
“In this case, both were at two different ends. This is how it should be. This is a good thing.
“By and large, it has been a peaceful rally. It would have been much easier if the police had facilitated movement of both groups to let them get to their points.’’
Umno Youth deputy chief Khairul Azwan Harun chose to stay home yesterday. He is glad both rallies were peaceful, and both sides could express their desires and aspirations.
“The police have demonstrated their professionalism and acted in the best interest of both sides as well as the rakyat who reject both the Yellow and the Red Shirts.’’
For him, nothing can be achieved by street rallies and he feels that it is Bersih 5 that caused the reaction from the Red Shirts.
He says while Bersih claims they are just calling for the Prime Minister to step down, their ulterior motive is to actually bring down the democratically-elected Barisan Nasional government.
And this, he says, should only be decided by the people in the next election.
As to what could have been done better, he says, Bersih should have just followed what the police had ordered earlier and called off the rally.
“Don’t go and disturb public and tourist spots like KLCC and LRT stations.
“We have stadiums and open fields but not Dataran Merdeka! Use those venues and bring lah millions if you want.’’
For days leading up to yesterday, police had been urging Bersih and the Red Shirts to call off both their rallies. But both sides stood firm.
The police might have gone overboard with their road closures today. But had there been clashes and had blood been spilt, they would have been blamed.
Still, there are many lessons to be learnt from today by all sides including the police and rally organisers.
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