Saturday’s protest against price hikes

This woman was pushed and she hit a pole. Unabated, a policeman punched in her stomach. An ambulance had to be called in. Police wanted to arrest her even in her state, but her friends managed to persuade them not too.

I arrived at 3 pm at the junction of KLCC’s Jalan Ampang. I called my ex-housemate, Ginie and asked where she was.

“I’m already in the police truck.”

Oops.

I alighted near Ampang Park and walked back towards KLCC, passing Dr. Nasir Hashim and his mates of Parti Sosialis Malaysia. They were giving speeches to a small crowd near Wisma MCA. I wanted to return to KLCC to the crowd of 600 plus people.

Ten minutes later, I saw Dr. Nasir, V Selvam (above) escorted to the truck. This was followed by other PSM leaders – Rani and Saraswathy. More people filled up the truck before it sped off. However, it returned to collect more people arrested, such as Chegubard, member of KeADILan’s Supreme Council (below).

Chegubard was unfazed. He led the crowd with shouts of “Hidup Rakyat” while still on the edge of the truck. He even delighted us with his version of Faizal-Tahir-throwing-t-shirt (minus the body baring) by flinging his yellow t-shirt towards the crowd, as four burly officers pushed him inside the Black Maria.

Arrests were random. I passed these two persons near Avenue K. Five minutes later, I was shocked to find them inside the truck.

We thought it was time to leave. I was supposed to catch a ride to Port Dickson for a meeting. So there were the usual obligatory photo-sessions, with the police as the backdrop and smiles.

These are the very dedicated, friendly, nice folks from KeADILan Pandan division.

I asked them and a few others to come along to the press conference by Tian Chua and Dr. Hatta Ramli, held at a roadside restaurant on Jalan Yap Kwan Seng. I’d spoken to Tian earlier, who informed me he wasn’t planning to be at the protest as it would only excite the cops.

Just as we approached the restaurant, I saw Jonson Chong, surrounded by about twenty people, and waving his hands in the air. Uh-oh. We arrived just in time to see them bundled off!

Tian was dragged and pushed into the truck.

Jonson (2nd from right), a lawyer, was arrested when he tried to stop the police from man-handling both Dr. Hatta (behind Jonson) and Tian.

Firmly behind the wires. Waiting for police escorts to take them to IPK-KL Jalan Hang Tuah.

We decided to venture there too. But the police decided, today, that the car-park areas was now a “security zone”. They brought out those brutish, thuggish-looking foul-mouthed plainclothes cops (photos of them later), who were a familiar sight since Reformasi.Mesra? Pah…

One of them shouted “Ini rumah saya!”. Hello Bebal. It’s a car-park. You sleep there? Public area. Police = Public entity. Duh…

Amer Hamzah (in red) negotiating for the crowd to stay with Kumaran (middle) while Feroz looked on. Apparently this was the same Kumaran who was once the OCPD of Sentul Police District and was in charge of investigating the mysterious death of K Sujatha. (!!)

We decided to leave, so as to give the lawyers some space to meet the detainees. But once out, the gate was shut firmly behind us. Lawyers who arrived later were refused entry.

No entry for lawyers from KL Legal Aid. Amer and Roger Tan camped out for several hours at the police guardhouse without having access to the detainees.

Apparently, this time, the IPK officers said orders from the top instructed them not to be cooperative, not to allow lawyers access, not to give out any information to families and lawyers. (Liddat oso can ah? Police Badawi Boleh!)

As of midnight, still no new information for the families and lawyers, save 10 out of the 55 were released.