Bersih 3.0 from an Insider's Perspective

I got to Masjid Jamek at about 1300hrs without any incident. When we emerged from the station, there was already a massive gathering along Jalan Tun Perak for as far as I could see, stretching to both ends of the road. We sat there for a while and I have to honestly say, got pretty bored, so we decided to move up to Dataran Merdeka where the heart of the occasion was to see what was going on there.

As we made our way to the intersection between Jalan Parlimen and Jalan Raja, all you could see was just a sea of yellow. Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman was packed to the brim, and Jalan Raja Laut was just bursting with protesters. Here's a map of what I could see:


We sat under the LRT tracks to get out of the sun, facing Jalan Raja and the police barricade. Just beyond that, I could see three or four bright red FRU trucks. A battalion of policemen were standing between the barricade and the trucks.

As we sat, we heard some jeering from the direction of inside the city. Two police trucks were coming out from Jalan Tun Perak, and some protesters were hurling empty plastic bottles at the trucks. At the urge of the crowd the hecklers stopped, and never repeated their actions towards the other trucks which eventually emerged.

It was about 1420hrs, and things were starting to die down. Save the occasional cries of 'buka!buka!', calling the police to open up the barricades, the crowd had actually fallen into a carnival mood. There were balloons being sold, drinks and food vendors on the corner of the streets. The people were just hanging around. By then, I had noticed that the police personnel had rolled up the razor wire and had pushed it to one side.

At about 1430hrs, we had gotten really bored and were about to leave when Anwar and Ambiga appeared on the back of a truck, speaking through a megaphone. There were cries of more 'buka!buka!', and that was when several things happened at once. The policemen manning the barricade (which had swelled in number significantly) began to run away from the barricade en masse. Concurrently, seeing the police force retreat, the initial crowd, thinking that they were finally given the green light to move forward, crossed the barrier and strolled towards Dataran Merdeka. The crowd has almost reached Dataran Merdeka when our friendly neighbourhood thugs in blue lobbed tear gas canisters into the oncoming crowd, then proceeded to hosed them down with chemical laced water cannons.

While all this was happening, I was still under the LRT tracks (more than 50meters) taking it all on film. I watched as the FRU water cannons came closer to the barricade, joyfully spraying all in sight. Jalan Raja had already been cleared of the initial crowd, and so I thought the police would stop. Next thing I know, I hear gunshots and I begin to see smoke rising from my right, and in front of me. With no warning whatsoever, the police began raining teargas cannisters into the passive crowd like they had a two year surplus of teargas and were in a hurry to use it all.

I turned and ran towards the DBKL building, trying to get out of the smoke. I barely made it to the steps when the gas took it's effect and I could barely open my eyes or breath. I tried calling out to my friends but I couldn't talk. I turned around in hope that the police force would have been satisfied with dispersing the crowd, but no! They continued firing cannisters all the way to the steps of the building. The crowd had no where to go - they were attacked from two ends (Jalan Raja and Jalan Parliamen), while the other areas were jammed pack with other protesters, that the crowd had to run into the DBKL building, into its narrow corridors and then around it to escape the gas.

As I ran with some of my friends (I had lost most of them in the chaos), teargas was still streaming in from Jalan Raja Laut. Struggling to breath and not get separated, I managed to reach the parking lot behind Yayasan Wilayah Persekutuan. Having had enough 'fun' for the day, we decided to leave immediately. Looking around me, there was no apparent way out of where we were. Jalan Raja Laut was under a blanket of teargas, and turning back to Dataran Merdeka was no option either. There was a bridge right behind us, but it was choked to the brim with people trying to escape. I suggested leaving through Jalan Sultan Ismail, but thankfully we didn't - from other eyewitness accounts, there were water cannons at Sogo area, barring our exit. Just then, my friend noticed that the bridge had miraculously cleared.

We left through the bridge and headed to Bangsar with no further incident. Except that bit where around Dayabumi where we saw a horde of police running in our direction. Turns out they shot a teargas cannister at themselves.