April 28th 2012 (428) marks one of the best day I’ve ever experienced in my life, Bersih 3.0 Rally. During the last 709 “Bersih 2.0” event that took place in year 2011, I missed out the chance to attend the rally in Kuala Lumpur; and among my friends, we make it a point that if…… if……… Bersih 3.0 really happens, we should not miss out the chance. True enough, it happens on 28th April 2012, Saturday at Dataran Merdeka/Stadium Merdeka. But due to some issues given by the authorities, we only manage to make it till Masjid Jamek, Kuala Lumpur.
What is Bersih actually? A simplest explanation to Bersih Rally is that the Malaysians in Malaysia wants a electoral reforms in the current Election system that basically dirty & corrupt. That is it. Bersih is a non-profit that support clean & fair election system in Malaysia. It has nothing to link with any political party in Malaysia. We, Malaysians, wants a fair & clean election system in Malaysia. Some other demands from Bersih organization can be read here.
On 428, the day of Bersih 3.0 takes place, we gathered among friends at LRT station. Most of the participants took the LRT/Monorail/Star LRT to the town. This is the experienced/advise given from those who have been joining rallies. Also, to make things easy, we took the LRT to escape the road blocks by the Police. Thanks to some friends who formed the team where on that day, we made friends for the same purpose!
During the journey on LRT, we save many people are heading to the town as well. Some stopped at Pasar Seni, some at Masjid Jamek, and some at the KLCC Twin Towers. We got down at Pasar Seni station, to meet with other group of friends. I just followed the leader. Guess what, at the Pasar Seni, it has an incredible crowd gathering there, for the same purpose, mostly with Yellow T-shirt heading to Jalan Sultan or Petaling Street. At the Pasar Seni station, we then were approached by the press for a short interview session of why we were there and what’s the feelings that day; they aired it the next day of the event. Thanks to the Photographer & Reporter LOL… The snapshot below is captured out of the newspaper.
Everything started around Petaling Street, Jalan Sultan, Jalan Pudu and Masjid Jamek. The crowd on that day are truly Malaysians only. Some foreigners/tourists join in also when they heard about the rally, and the meaning of the rally. But, we can’t find many foreign workers hanging or walking around the streets (most of the time the streets conquer by foreign workers LOL!). Everyone on the street chanting for “Bersih”, Hidup Rakyat, and so on… The mood on the street cannot be describe by words alone, really…
Out of no where, someone shouted my name… and it was Dr Wan, a doctor by profession, and a blogger at night who writes tremendous articles on his blog. Check him out at Better Days. He wrote about the event as well. He even created a VBlog with his iPhone 4s. LOL!
While he was filming the Vblog, I captured the process of us on the iphone…
After the Vblog recording, we split our ways and continue within the crowd. We met friends which we have not been meeting for sometime, everyone were there to experience the rally event.
After several group photos with friends, I split out with them and went to take some photos around Petaling Street.
The bus driver honk as he walked pass the crowd.. everyone happily cheer & clapped their hands in returns
I saw the Unit Amal Pas from far, so I went and approach them for a group photos before they headed for their duty. They did their very best to secure the crowd and protect the crowd. They were the front-liners for 250,000 people that day.
I like this dude.. he sits high and everyone spotted him. It says, we are the boss in Malaysia!
Suddenly we heard a large group of people chanting “Bersih Bersih” Hidup Rakyat and started singing song, it was another group of participants that came from the Masjid Negara heading to Masjid Jamek. We then join in and be part of them; everyone started to join the group as well, and headed to Masjid Jamek to gather with other participants who came from another gathering point. It was Hishammudin Rais that headed the crowd to Masjid Jamek. YB Tony Pua was in this group as well.
As we were walking towards Masjid Jamek, Hishammudin Rais led the crowd to sing a simple song call Suara Rakyat. It was a very nice song with nice lyrics. I captured a few version of the song, below here is the best version I’ve uploaded:
Marina Chin from Bersih committee board were there as well. She addressed a crowd of estimated 100,000 people.
The crowd on 428 is incredibly awesome & overwhelming!
Second guy who shouted my name, among so many people on that day, we still can bump to each other. My buddy… Longgor….
I left him after taking a picture with him, and headed to the front. Then, Datuk Ambiga, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, YB Lim Kit Siang, and other leaders addressed the crowd. We sing Negaraku, national anthem and follow by chanting the slogans. Then around 2:45-3pm, the leader announced the success of the Bersih 3.0 rally, and asked everyone to retreat, go back home, & Bersurai…… at this time, suddenly everything turn into a nightmare,… the police fired water cannon and tear gas… something must be wrong at the front… according to news spread around Facebook, some anti-provocator started the issue; well, I’m not sure… you judge… what does everyone of us do? RUN!!!!
We ran like mad… and me, having only a towel… asking people beside me for water and salt to calm myself down… thanks to the people that offered me water, salt and so on… thanks very much… one of the unit amal member distributing the salt; and even educated us how to use it – just eat it and not applying on the face.. 
There goes my whole day for 28th April 2012. It’s indeed a remarkable day for those who were there. I’ve experienced & witnessed myself the spirit of unity among every Malaysians, it’s indeed a memorable day to me.
We left; we eat; and we headed back home safely.
