Bersih 3.0 from the eyes of a medic
As many of you guys know, I attended Bersih rally two days ago. I did so for many reasons, they include: I still love my country and want to see the best from it, my cousins went last year and their stories were inspiring, and I was plain curious what tear gas felt like.
I was fully aware of what I was going to get myself into. Did as much prep work as I could before leaving for Malaysia. When some of my Singaporean friends heard I was going, they asked me to stay in Singapore and watch it on TV because it was dangerous. My response to them was 'if everyone thought that way, there'll be nothing to watch on TV'. I knew I could survive tear gas and water cannons, but I was worried about being arrested. So to minimize the possibility of being arrested, I went as a medic.
Yes, a medic. Almost everyone I told this to burst out laughing saying I don't have a medic face. I wasn't part of the medical team or anything, I just made a red crescent arm back out of elastic and red markers (thanks tien li for reminding me it's not a red cross in Malaysia), packed a couple of first aid kits and headed up north. I do have a valid standard first aid and CPR license and have treated enough of my rock climbing and outdoor injuries to know how to deal with most situations.
On the morning of 428, I headed to KL via LRT. I had planned to reach there about 11 because I thought they might shut down the LRT like they did last year, and I wanted to get into KL before the LRT got closed. On the way to KL, my friend messaged me that the Masjid Jamek station (which I was planning to alight at) had been closed, so I alighted at Plaza Rakyat together with a lot of other people clad in yellow. Walking over to Pasar Seni, there were already thousands in the street. I hung out near the LRT station till my friend arrived at 1.30. The atmosphere was jovial with people occasionally chanting 'bersih' and 'hidup rakyat' while playing with a huge yellow balloon that was being bounced around the crowd. I met up with my friend, and marched with the crowd towards Masjid Jamek when everyone started moving at about 2.15. We made it as far as Masjid Jamek, but couldn't go any further because Jalan Tun Perak was chock full of people. We went back to the bridge at Jalan Raja where there was a police barricade where someone had pasted a sign 'Welcome to Tel Aviv' over the razor wire.
Razor wire is f**king sharp. My friend got cut, so we went to the side of the road so I could patch him up. A woman saw me open my first aid kit and stood with her umbrella over my friend while I worked. A group of guys walked pass, and asked if my green packet labeled G stood for ganja. They promptly apologized when they realized my friend was hurt and G stood for gauze. I was highly amused. Another guy who got cut came over and I patched him up too. My friend and I then went to grab some cardboard to put over the razor wire to minimize accidents happening. We soon got bored and we started to head back to Pasar Seni LRT this is when we heard tear gas being fired, it was about 3.30 when it happened. My friend decided he had to leave, and I decided I'll stay around and offer any help I could.
The rakyat helped each other after being gassed, skin colour or religion no longer mattered. Those with salt were holding opened packets out to everyone that passed. Those with water first washed their own faces, then turned to help others do the same. I approached a group of men about 50 years of age and asked if everything is ok, one of them replied, 'we're all ok, just want to see who still needs help'. I headed back to Jalan Raja bridge to see what things were like, the roads were wet, a sign that water cannons were used.
I heard someone shout 'medical, medical' and ran over. An old man had collapsed, but a few other medics got there before me. I still set up shop next to them to deal with other cases that were coming in. Almost all cases were tear gas related, a few had serious exposure, some had been hit by the canisters and were bruised / cut by them, a few more had been burnt when they tried to pick up the canisters to throw back. Note: The canisters are HOT, DO NOT touch them unless you're wearing thick gloves. If you plan to handle canisters, you WILL be heavily exposed to the gas. It was the burn victims that worried me the most, their skin had turned white but hadn't start to blister. I didn't have any ice with me, and they sighed with relief when I sprayed ethyl chloride on their hands. The nozzles of my cans also decided to malfunction right then, refusing to spray. I sent a few people to the nearby Burger King to get ice, but all the shops had locked their doors after the police opened fire and refused to give them ice. All I could do was to advice them to ice their burns as quickly as they could. The old man next to me looked in pretty bad shape, but the other medics were working on him, and was trying to figure out how to get an ambulance over through the crowd. There was nothing else I could do, so I moved on.
I managed to persuade macD along Jalan Tun Perak to unlock their door and give me a bag of ice by pointing to my armband, but true to murphy's law, I didn't need ice again till it was long melted.
It was an interesting experience being part of the rally as a medic. I was always moving in the opposite direction of the crowd. When the police advanced with tear gas and water cannons, and everyone starts running, I would hold my ground to make sure no one was hurt and left behind before running myself. When the police retreated, and the crowd pushed forward, I would move back, to look for people who were nursing wounds. There was one moment were I hung around for too long when the water cannon was advancing, and the cannon started to track me. As I braced myself for the worst, a malay guy grabbed me and pulled me behind a wall before I got hit.
The water from the cannon was laced with chemicals. I think it was some form of pepper spray, skin felt like it was burning upon contact, and the water vapours caused my eyes to tear badly.
After another round of tear gassing, I heard shouts for a Medic and ran in to the alley where it originated from. Two guys were sitting against a wall, and when I asked what happened, the victim pointed to his leg. He was wearing a pair of long pants, but his white sock was soaked with blood. His friend looked at me and said 'kena tembak, peluru besi' (got shot, steel bullet). I immediately thought 'Oh dear, please don't give me a bullet wound. I'm not confident of dealing with one'. After cleaning some of the blood away, I saw that the gash was not caused by a bullet, but because he had been hit by a tear gas canister. I sighed with relief, this one I'm able to treat. While applying pressure to stop the bleeding, I learnt something. When you're helping a victim, and the police decide to gas the area, you can't run, nether can your victim.
The home minister might praise the police for acting in a professional manner, but from my perspective, they were anything but professional. Firstly, they kept taunting the crowd. Sure the crowd was shouting insults and taunting the police too (my malay is so bad, I could not really make out most of what either side was yelling at each other), but the police kept signaling to the crowd with the unmistakable 'if you want us, come and get us' signals.
Secondly, a lot of the police actions made no tactical sense. It wasn't to hold a line, or secure a perimeter. They would push forward, chasing the crowd back, then retreat back to their original place, or even further back. When they retreated, the crowd would jeer them as they retreated, regroup, and push forward again. To me, it looked like the police were taunting the crowd, trying to get people to act in a rash manner, just to give an excuse for them to justify arrests. If arrests were what they wanted, they sure got it, because everytime the police retreated, the people felt like they had 'won' that round and got bold, increasing jeering and sometimes throwing stones and bottles after the police. At this, the police at times turn around chase and try to arrest people. However, each time someone threw something at the police, he would get reprimanded by another rakyat, telling him to chill or that throwing things at the police isn't helping the Bersih cause.
Third was police brutality, you might see videos of police beating people up, I saw this happen the whole afternoon. It wasn't violent protesters that were arrested, it was anybody the police could get their hands on. People sitting by the side of the road doing nothing were pounced on by the police. Police were chasing down two guys, both stumbled, the police pounced on one, kicked the other away from behind so he fell headfirst to the ground. Police arrested people, held them down while others rained blows on them before taking them away. I met another medic who told me he saw police beating a man, he ran forward to stop them and give aid to the man, but was chased away by the police with threats of arrest. At one point, a wave of police ran up to the group I was with and one tried to grab me in a headlock. I ducked under his arm, and when he turned back to come at me again, I pointed at my armband. He apologized to me, but other police behind him started yelling at me. I took the hint and quickly walked away. This happened around the Jalan Raja - Jalan Tun Perak intersection
I made my way back to Masjid Jamek station, the police advanced to the station (for the umteenth time) soon after. After a couple of canisters of tear gas was released together with the water cannon, I decided it was time to head back and started walking back towards puduraya. After about 200m, I walked pass a mamak shop, next to the chef was one last packet of maggi mee. I hadn't had lunch, was hungry and I thought I would try and see if I can snag that last packet. I knew I was still pretty close to the front line, but I still was curious to how things were going to turn out, plus I felt the police won't pick on a medic.
My maggi goreng was served and I heard a commotion outside the shop which could only mean the police were charging forward. A group of policemen burst into the shop and arrested everyone in yellow, some came up to me and I calmly pointed at my armband and continued to quietly eat my maggi. They hustled everyone in yellow away and a few of them were picking on this guy in a grey shirt, slapping him around. Suddenly one of the police pointed at me and started shouting some stuff at me (I really need to brush up my malay), but I think he was saying something along the lines of 'What are you still doing around, I told you to get lost' so I guess it's the same group of police that tried to get me in a headlock. I got dragged out of the shop and the police started raining punches onto me before one of them grabbed my arm and started to march me back to the police stronghold at dataran merdeka.
Walking towards dataran was like running a gauntlet. Police from all sides were jeering and insulting us as we walked past, those close enough would take free hits at us. After a few blows to the head which left me dizzy, I kept my hands up to protect my head and took the blows to my body. Some of these blows winded me, and one hit me behind my knee with his baton, leaving my leg numb knee down. The policeman holding onto me kept whispering to me not to fight back, and that as long as he was holding on to me, I won't get it too bad. While I am thankful that I had him to protect me, the fact that he did nothing to stop, and that police were so open about their abuse, seems to suggest that abuse was in their culture. None of the police had their name tags or numbers on their uniform, making identification of a particular police difficult. Halfway to dataran merdeka, one of the policemen pointed at my armband, shouted to the others that an armband could be bought. Another police ripped it off my arm, threw it along the road, before letting me continue the gauntlet run.
The beatings I got were mild compared to many others I witnessed. One man behind me collapsed after a blow, he was quickly surrounded and kicked by others.
I was put into the same police vehicle as Wong Chin Huat. This was when my work started, I had more first aid work to do in the bus than I had the whole day. I treated about 10 people with cuts on their head that could only be the result of beatings, skin around the eye split, foreheads beaten, and some with cuts on their scalp. All of these wounds were superficial but had profuse bleedings typical of scalp and face injuries. One guy had a broken ankle which I splinted with a roll of newspaper. I managed to stop most of the bleeding of the people who were in my bus by the time we arrived at the police station, but what ice I had had long melted, so there was little I could do for the many people whose heads had swellings from beatings, some had lumps the size of golf balls, and the guy in grey shirt who was in the same mamak shop as me, his left cheek was twice the size of his right.
At the police station, things were rather eventful. They offered medical treatment for all those who were hurt, they searched my bag and confiscated my swiss army knives. Made us sit around for hours. I continued to help tend to some of the people who refused medical help from the police, one had a gash behind his ear, another, i'm pretty sure had a cracked rib. But after taking our statement and photograph, we were released about 8 hours later (thanks Ben for waiting and picking me up).
I went back to Masjid Jamek the next day on my way to pudu. I was wondering if I could find my armband because I promised one of my friends I'll give it to her, but the area had been swept and the armband along with the other trash. I stopped by the mamak stall to pay for my maggi goreng which I was interrupted from, the shop keeper recognized me and gave me a hug after I paid him. Another one of the guys at the shop offered me a cigarette which I could not refuse without hurting his feelings. After lighting up and promising to eat at the stall in the future, I continued to pudu and made my way to Ipoh.
ps. I was not in the any of the areas where the controversies happened, so I cannot comment on who's to blame. All I can vouch for is that it did turn from a carnival to a riot, and it wasn't a pretty sight.
I didn't take much photos, but some of those I took are here. http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150781264437829.429784.585512828&type=1
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