A day to be proud of

Posted by admin on July 10th, 2011

Dear Editor,

At 10am, we were still considering making our trip downtown to attend the rally. After having been blasted with so much dramatisation of the upcoming rally over the past week, with every fear tactic in the book being thrown at us — was it really worth our while, we wondered?

After some deliberation, it was decided that if we could get to town without being re-diverted over and over again by roadblocks then we should try.

Having managed to get to Bukit Bintang without much trouble by car, we continued on foot towards Pudu Jail but were barred from going further.

We turned off towards Puduraya instead. By 1.30pm, the crowd was starting to build up. The first round of tear gas had already been fired by then.

Despite the unpleasantness, supporters remained calm. The atmosphere was electrifying. The unity transcended all colours, creed and age and that unity was sealed when we all sang “Negaraku.”

Never have I felt the strength and the reason to our national anthem as when we sang it together, standing for reason to be there and nowhere else. The reason to be counted and respected as a citizen.

Not long after that, the FRU trucks began to move in. Those of us who wanted to leave were instead squeezed into dead ends, eventually moving into Tung Shin Hospital grounds for refuge.

There was simply nowhere else to go and we were hemmed in by the FRUs. Helicopters circled low overhead and without warning, several tear gas canisters were shot into the air from the main road below.

The canisters’ trajectory shot them high, falling and ricocheting off the first floor awning of the hospital. Tung Shin Hospital should have been neutral ground.

Where the canisters fell, there were windows open on the first floor. I can only imagine how much discomfort that created for patients and workers on that floor.

We waited out the hysteria that was happening down below and eventually made our way out of the area with little injury apart from smarting eyes and stinging skin.

The day started out as one of many routine Saturdays and by evening, had turned into one that will be marked in history as a day the people of Malaysia are proud to have stood up for.

Yeok

http://www.kl-today.com/2011/07/a-day-to-be-proud-of/