“From this incident we can easily see for ourselves how one media (the foreign) exagerates while the other (the local) tries to cover up the same incident.”

Dear mumsgather, I was at the junction of Batu Road and Jln Tun Perak where the police had just fired tear gas and water cannons at Malaysians walking peacefully for clean elections. People weren’t even carrying placards – only wearing yellow and shouting “Daulat Tuanku!” When the FRU began banging batons on their shields and charging the crowd, I ducked into a side alley to avoid being crushed and was able to walk quietly on my own to Dataran Merdeka where it was ghostly quiet except for a tramp eating from a styrofoam box and one scowling plainclothes inspector. Hamish MacDonald who reported the walk for Aljazeera was NOT exaggerating. He looked TRAUMATISED by getting doused with chemical water. May I suggest you cancel your subscription to The Star and the NST – and stop watching RTM and TV3. They don’t deserve our support a day longer!

Victor, I appreciate your sharing your feedback with everybody. I later heard that dozens of buses had been turned back at various entry points to KL. My guess is that there would have been an additional 13,000 walkers if those buses had come through. And if the weather had been sunny, I dare say another 20,000 would have showed up. Amazingly, the BERSIH event would have achieved its 100,000 mark and more. The heavy-handed police action only succeeded in reducing the number of participants but it certainly did not even dent our high spirits