From the rally, citizens could witness how effectively the Malaysian Royal Police or Polis Diraja Malaysia (PDRM) and the Federal Reserve Unit (FRU) were being utilized to assist the crowd by shutting down the capital city Kuala Lumpur with roadblocks and setting up check points to ensure public safety. Besides, the friendly and caring police forces gathered them together in one place and fired tear gas canisters and chemical-laced water from all directions to guide the huge crowd to follow the correct route to the stadium on that day.
Unfortunately, according to local newspapers such as Utusan Malaysia, The Star, New Straits Times and China Press, there were many stubborn demonstrators who disobeyed the law and fought against the authorities. The newspapers further illustrated and explained that the police’s brutal actions were merely counteraction against the offensive public who refused to be arrested. These brave and responsible police, whom we can hardly see their competency, could handle difficult situation such as firing tear gas canisters into Tung Shin hospital precinct without causing any harm to the patients and arrested protesters who hid themselves in the hospital (Perhaps the police were afraid that the patients in the hospital might be taken as hostages). This proved the Malaysian Royal Police’s intelligence in justifying the complex scenario, which takes arresting the ‘terrorists’ as the primary task(patients' health is secondary). What a wise decision to make!
Despite the numerous injuries and a death caused by the unreasonably overreacted measures and actions taken against the peaceful rally, Home Minister, Hishammuddin Hussein proudly praised the police for carrying their duties efficiently and had successfully minimized the chaos from outburst. Moreover, the Prime Minister kindly mocked at the rally, claiming that it was just a minority of people who turned out that day. He added that this group of people cannot reflect the majority who yearn to reform electoral system, but the interesting thing is that his talent of acting was clearly shown when he publicly laughed the opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, who suffered from injuries caused by the tear gas, imitating the way he groaned in agony with compassion.
However, Najib’s effort of promoting democracy and human rights was not appreciated by the public, as well as international organizations like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, which wrote him a joint letter to voice their dissatisfaction on Najib’s ways of handling this peaceful rally 'peacefully'. They considered all these actions taken to counter the peaceful protest as unnecessary and totally uncalled-for, as it is not political motivated to topple the ruling government as mentioned by the BN politicians. It is completely unreasonable as some activists were detained under the Emergency Ordinance for ‘waging war against the King’.
Again, Malaysia has earned its fame globally, in terms of its counter-terrorism and respecting democracy as well as human rights, and this further helps to promote tourism in Malaysia. Today, I believe the public can understand why Tourism Minister Dr Ng Yen Yen claimed that the ‘Cuti-cuti Malaysia’ Facebook page costs RM 1.8 million.
That is the voice of the people.
