May 28, 06 2:09pm (Malaysiakini Report)
It was supposed to be the climax of a series of anti-fuel hike demonstrations, yet it ended on a tragic note when police today forcefully broke up the protest with at least two seriously injured.
At 10.30am, the 500-strong crowd gathered near the Jalan Ampang entrance of the iconic Kuala Lumpur City Centre and began their peaceful protest with noisy chants and fiery speeches.
One of the protest banners said: "Cronies get rich while workers are oppressed".
The protestors also slammed a government's decision last week to raise electricity tariffs by 12 percent - the first hike in nearly a decade.
Some 100 riot police wielding batons and rifles stood guard in front of KLCC Twin Towers, alongside several water cannon trucks, as helicopters flew overhead.
"Everybody is suffering from the fuel hike. Now electricity prices are also up. These two hikes will hit us hard, whether our pay is large or small," chief protest organiser Dr Hatta Ramli told the crowd.
Things took a turn for the worse when the third speaker at the demonstration, DAP representative Ronnie Liu, expressed his gratitude for the support given by voters to the opposition at the recent Sarawak state elections.
Immediately, the police through loudhailers issued an order for the crowd to disperse. The
crowd ignored the warning, and five minutes later, water cannons were fired.Despite being drenched profusely, most of the crowd defiantly held their ground, prompting plainclothes police officers to move in and make random arrests.
Those arrested include Liu, PAS Kubang Kerian member of parliament Salahuddin Ayub and Parti Keadilan Rakyat deputy information chief Badrul Hisham.
As the crowd moved out of the water cannons' range, the Federal Reserve Unit (FRU) charged at them sending many protestors, including women and children, running for cover as shocked Sunday shoppers looked on.
Excessive violence
Eyewitness reports tell of excessive violence being used by the FRU on several protestors, including PKR deputy secretary-general Zahir Hassan (left and below), who was kicked a number of times while sprawled on the road.Zahir was walking away from the protest venue with his two daughters when he was repeatedly shoved from behind by a FRU officer using his shield.
The FRU officer then turned to Zahir’s two daughters, both in their 20s, pushing one of them. Enraged, Zahir attempted to protect his daughters from the police officer.
Instead, Zahir was assaulted by several FRU personnel. He was thrown to the floor, endured several blows of police baton and at least three kicks - two on the back and one on the abdomen - prompting his daughters to scream hysterically.
All this while, Zahir was clutching onto the anti-fuel hike booklet that was distributed at the protest. According to PKR information chief Tian Chua, Zahir - who was arrested by the police - had been sent to the hospital for medical attention.
An X-ray was taken before Zahir was sent to the Pudu police station where other detainees were held.
In another altercation, one protestor was subdued by at least 10 FRU personnel.
The protester held on to a police officer in a bid to shield himself from the blows, which included one from the butt end of a gas canister launcher (second photo from top).Traces of blood stains were also found at the entrance of KLCC, where a scuffle between FRU personnel and an unidentified protestor had allegedly taken place. The protestor was believed to have been hospitalised for lacerations to the head.
Cops act in self-defence
Dang Wangi OCPD ACP Kamal Pasha (right) told reporters after the police wrapped up their operations at about 11.30am, that 18 individuals were arrested, including two women.
Asked by malaysiakini if the use of force, especially the repeated kicking by his men, were justifiable, Kamal told reporters that his men had acted in self-defence.
"They (the protestors) resisted arrest. They started kicking first. (Retaliation) for us is self-defence. Minimum force was used," insisted Kamal.
After the FRU and the bulk of the police had left the scene, some remaining 300 protestors regroup for a short address by PAS central committee member and chief protest organiser Hatta.
He told the crowd that past protests had been peaceful and this protest was to be the last before they begin a new phase of their anti-fuel hike campaign.
When he asked the crowd if they should continue street protests in reaction to today's violent response from the police, he was met with boisterous shouts of agreement.
A crowd later gathered outside the Pudu police station where the detained protestors were held. At about 4pm, all 18 were freed on police bail.
The protestors said that they might go the Human Rights Commission, or Suhakam, tomorrow to lodge a complaint against the police.
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ALAYSIA:
Brutality on Protesters, Throwback to Mahathir Era
Anil Netto
PENANG, May 31 (IPS) - After the brutal suppression of weekend demonstrations in the Malaysian capital, against hikes in fuel oil and electricity prices, stunned civil society groups are revising a view that there would be more room for dissent under Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi's administration.
Sunday's protest in Kuala Lumpur were the latest in a series of periodic weekend demonstrations mounted ever since fuel oil prices were first hiked at the end of February.
Last Wednesday, the Cabinet approved a 12 percent hike in electricity tariffs, sparking concern even though 60 percent of consumers -- those who use less than 200kWh a month -- would not be affected.
Opposition parties and civil society groups have said they fear that higher electricity tariffs will raise the production costs for manufacturers, which in turn will lead to higher prices of essential items. The government argues that the impact is likely to be minimal.
For many, it was going to be just another Sunday protest against tariff hikes in the vicinity of the Petronas Twin Towers, the capital's imposing landmark. About 500 demonstrators turned up to listen to now familiar speeches, wave placards and chant slogans.
But they were taken aback when water cannons and riot police moved in, mid-way through the speeches, after an order to disperse went unheeded. Eyewitness testimony and video footage revealed heavy handed action by the police in dispersing the gathering.
Baton-swinging police moved into the crowd and roughed up a few demonstrators. One riot policeman was photographed swinging the butt of his gas canister rifle towards the head of a demonstrator.
"The manner in which the police used violence on the crowd which resulted in about three persons suffering head injuries is deplorable and completely unacceptable," said Charles Hector and N. Surendran in a statement released by Malaysians Against Death Penalty and Torture (MADPET). They said that one victim was kicked and beaten by police in front of his two young daughters.
Photographs showed a demonstrator with blood streaming from his head and neck. Another demonstrator, who later appeared with a plaster cast, said he had broken his hand. Demonstrators were also reportedly kicked and manhandled. Eighteen men and two women were detained.
"Clearly, the blatant police violence showed today is in stark contradiction with the international image of the Malaysian government, which was recently elected into the United Nations' Human Rights Council. It is a complete betrayal of the international pledge made by the Malaysian government to promote and protect human rights,'' said Yap Swee Seng, executive director of the Malaysian human rights group, Suaram in a press statement released on May 28.
"Just seeing those people being beaten -- it's unacceptable and unconscionable," says political science professor Johan Saravanamuttu. "How can this country, which claims to be a democracy, not allow for a peaceful gathering of citizens, legitimately bringing to notice issues of great concern to their livelihood?"
In many ways, the batons and water cannons brought back vivid memories of the repressive measures used against ‘reformasi' demonstrators protesting against the excesses of autocratic former premier Mahathir Mohamad during the turbulent 1998-2001 period.
This time, it appears that the authorities are concerned that the regular protests against the higher fuel and energy tariffs may tap into growing discontent over the rising cost of living. The mainstream English-language press either ignored or marginalised news of the protests.
Although the economy is expected to grow by 6 percent this year (up from 5.3 percent last year), inflation reached 4.8 percent in March -- the highest level in seven years. The gap between the rich and the poor has also widened slightly over the last few years.
Last week, the opposition made significant inroads in elections in the state of Sarawak, a ruling coalition stronghold, even though the coalition won comfortably. The inroads in a state where the chief minister has held power for 25 years triggered alarm bells in ruling coalition circles.
The hike in electricity tariff hikes has added to a general sense of disenchantment. It has also cast an uncomfortable spotlight on the country's private independent power producers (IPPs), who have profited from lopsided agreements with national power corporation Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB).
Critics argue that the latest tariff hike may not have been necessary if the agreements had been renegotiated to reduce TNB's "capacity charge" payments to the IPPs for their excess capacity. The hike in tariffs will generate an additional 1.5 billion ringgit (414 million US dollars) but TNB pays the IPPs 2.5 billion ringgit (690 million dollars) for their 40 percent excess capacity.
The Abdullah administration is obviously taking no chances with the protests, but in the process the prime minister risks ruining what remains of his reformist credentials.
"The violence by the police in beating up peaceful demonstrators has highlighted the need to quickly establish an Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) to stop abuses of human rights by the police," said Lim Guan Eng, secretary general of the opposition Democratic Action Party in a statement.
The IPCMC that Lim referred to was a key recommendation of a Royal Commission on the operations and management of the police. But the upper echelons of the police force are believed to be unhappy about having such a watchdog body set up. The result: the government appears no closer to setting up the IPCMC, much to civil society's dismay.
The suppression of the protest in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday stands in contrast to the way another demonstration was handled in Penang on May 14. A group of 300 protestors, made up largely of Muslim groups, disrupted a civil society forum on the Constitution that aimed to look at the overlapping jurisdictions of civil and shariah laws. Police negotiated at length with the protestors outside and then advised the organisers of the forum to cut short the event, saying they were worried the demonstrators might storm the building.
‘‘We practise very stark double standards,'' observed Saravanamuttu. He said there were any number of occasions when groups of people gather in public places in support of projects or programmes promoted by the ruling party and "nobody would say they are holding an illegal assembly".
But, he noted, when it comes to something which is against a particular government policy, the government is prepared to use violence against its own citizens, sliding towards brute force using "universally unacceptable, highhanded ways of dealing with legitimate civil protests". (END/2006)
Police brutality also transpires in Europe, no doubt; albeit to a lesser degree than in, e.g., Malaysia.
I am presently on vacation in several countries of Europe; I am neither European nor Malaysian.
Yet I can tell you that some Malaysian Embassy staffers are corrupt; they expect "tokens" from visitors and blackmail restaurant-owners.
Besides, most Malaysian-Malay government officials travelling abroad abuse Embassy facilities for private shopping and private chores.
Also, some Muslims from Malaysia accumulate debts in gambling dens abroad.
Now we are reading here about the price hikes in M'sia.
Who bleeds? The ordinary M'sian citizen, the tax-payers, the small people; a handful of those are my friends.
It is a scandal!
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