In our Selected Exhortations category, we republish interesting stuff such as must-read articles and essays not originally written exclusively for the blawg, and which have come to our attention. Please feel free to email [email protected] if you would like to reproduce your writing, but first follow our Writer’s Guide here.
This report has been circulated via email by Temme Lee.
At 2.36 am, in the wee hours of Thursday 19 April 2012, the student and Occupy Dataran encampment was violently ambushed by a big group of men. After the ambush, everyone sat down, and victims of violence started to tell stories of what happened. Here is a brief summary of the stories.
Everything started at 2.36 am. A group of people on motorbikes rode in and parked. They walked towards the field and started shouting. From the fountain, another group of people came and started pulling and breaking tents, which were occupied by people fast asleep. There were altogether 60 people from this aggressive group. There were around 40-50 people who were part of the encampment, both students and non-students.
In one incident, a woman in one of the tents was violently attacked — her head was kicked while she was still in the tent. They also shouted while hitting her tent.
They kicked a few tents and shouted at people to get out. A few people (non-students) were dragged from the edge of the camp to the field and beaten up. One guy was held in a chokehold and made to surrender his camera. He was dragged away.
One woman was holding a camera, and they pulled her bag, took her camera, and smashed it onto the ground.
Another woman who had gone to relieve herself earlier and was walking back to the camp from the direction of the fountain took out her camera and started filming. Around 15 people surrounded her, and one man snatched her camera. They shouted and pushed her to the ground until she let go of her camera. After she got up, another man pulled her bag and pushed her around.
One guy followed behind the police and started filming, his camera was snatched and stamped on.
One guy was in a tent, opened it, heard people shouting and managed to get out of the tent before they pulled the tent. He sat at the mats with a few people, and the attackers started provoking them to get a reaction. They dragged another guy off the mat and beat him up.
The attackers threw food around, destroyed all the tents and took the donation box.
One guy was dragged to the street and beaten up by 5 people because he had a camera in his bag.
One woman was picked on and called a lesbian.
About 5 police cars came — but they did nothing.
One man wearing a kopiah was slapped twice. When he asked what was happening, he was beaten, called pukimak and was taunted that he would never get into heaven.
One guy tried to take a photo with his iPad, and they hit him and tried to take his iPad.
A few people saw a man in plainclothes carrying a revolver. We could not ascertain whether he was a Special Branch officer.
A man identified one of the individuals in the attacking group as a member of UMNO Youth.
After the ambush, campers cleaned up the place.We collectively decided that we would not be intimidated by the violence, and that we would sit peacefully to defend Dataran Merdeka as the people’s square, and our right to occupy it peacefully.
Join us in peacefully defending our right to freedom of expression, and to reclaim our rights to Dataran Merdeka as our democratic space. Bring your cameras and sleeping bags, and #OccupyDataran with us until 28 April 2012.
Copy, paste, share, post, blog and tweet this. Spread this to everyone you know!
Well, I like Mr. Bean…but the issure here is "should the rest of us pay for these students tuitions? Think about it some of the time, people; and, by-the-way, homosexuality is a sin in most cultures, even in these times. God bless Malaysia.
guys being paid to give crap comments here?
payah budak manja skang ni…
Sigh. The state of our country; where might is right.
It's silly to see you all fighting against each other when your "overlords" BN & Pakatan are both on the same team. They're both Freemason fronts playing ye olde "black & white" game of theirs, also known as the divide & conquer strategy. Both sides telah diperbodohkan. CONGRATULATIONS!
Mr. Bean went & park his car in a car park that says "Park at ya own risk". Next, Mr. Bean car got smashed. Then, Mr. Bean cried like a cry baby.
For what leh? Next time, just don't take risk thinking u r a hero if u cannot afford to lose lor.
Right on
Trolls out in force but wither their futures too – unbelievable – the tacit support for thuggery that took place wee hours of the morn and increasingly public left with no recourse as even the cops stand aside to allow common assault to take place. Plain sad the commotion that uMNO and the youth wing are trying to instigate and all the while being watched over by pigs in blue – what is this country coming to ?
OCPD Dang Wangi, this one is over your head – no ?
Bapak suruh pi belajar, dia orang pi camping pulak.
tu lah. Padan muka skrg.
wtf?
you call this rowdy? this kinda scene is common in most pubs/bars/clubs during wee hours. Just a bit of pushing here & there, shouting here & there,…that's all. no big deal.
WTF are the students complaining? they are still young & are not old folks. if these students can't even stand this sort of things, how could they even survive when they grow a little older in the future (let alone trying to fight for the nation's agenda).
grow up, young chikus!!! time to be a little tougher & stop behaving like softies still wearing diapers crying for mother's milk. all they know is just to take pixs with their phones/cameras. Adoi!!! they think they are photographers or what? Is this what the students are capable of doing only? ambil gambar aje macam pergi sight seeing kah?
Hahahahahahahahaha!!!!
Camp at ya own risk. If those STUDENTS think they are TOUGH & HEROIC, then, why CRY like a BABY when they encounter problems, rite??? I'm puzzled why people instantly finger point it at UMNO/BN when there's no single proof to prove so.
Come BERSIH 3.0, if things get UGLIER……………..all you COWARDS better stay home. No point trying to lagak PAHLAWAN only to end up crying foul like a KURA-KURA.
Everybody wants to be BRAVE but only a handful that are indeed BRAVE. Those who thinks/like to act BRAVE but always end up only knowing how to complain/blame are just MERE WANNABE BRAVE HEARTS.
I just love that video scene. Macam Blockbuster!!!
Thanks for sharing. I just saw the video as well and what happen is so so wrong. Agree or not, I would be at Dataran Merdeka tonight if I lived in KL, so instead I'll be at #OccupyKotaKinabalu instead.