It was a proud day to be a Malaysian. And I was on assignment for The Malaysian Insider… shooting a video package of the event (the above video is the result). I was suppose to meet and interview Khairy Jamaluddin (UMNO Youth Chief), but he got arrested as soon as he step foot into Bukit Bintang (but his group numbers were too few and they marched too short a distance to have any relevance on that day! Sorry KJ!). I was also suppose to meet Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan (Chair of BERSIH 2.0), but she was arrested too soon as well (her group, on the other hand, rocked KL!). I was also stuck at the Masjid Jamek and Pudu stretch and could not go anywhere else, so most (all!) of my coverage is from that area.

My former student, Isabelle Lai, is now a journalist for The Star! How proud I am! Muahaha!

Empty streets… before the rise of the Malaysians!

I love my job!

The police were all ready from the night before… and they look set for some arresting!

McDonald’s taking care of their customers!

The crowd was definitely more than 10,000 strong just in Pudu alone.

But they never made it to Stadium Merdeka. Chemical-laced water and tear gas made sure of that. But rest assured… the crowd’s voice has been heard!

Linus and I just got smoke-bombed!

Albert/Malek and I had to finally sit down to recuperate from the tear gas.

Woooo!! Scary men!

I saw some violent arrests being made on non-violent civilians. My buddy, film director Liew Seng Tat, got arrested and he said he was kicked and even hit after he was cuffed. If you watch my video above, you can see him briefly in the background being led away by police… and also more violent arrests on others. He also said he had a great time in prison and enjoyed dropping the soap at every opportunity he had! Hahaha!

People running away from the tear gas.

Dr Sivarasa Rasiah (PKR) and Datuk Ngeh Koo Ham (DAP) tried to negotiate with the police to allow them to march peacefully.

Their negotiations failed and they were arrested!

The line of riot police were there… and they cordoned off the media behind it. How the hell were we suppose to do our jobs? I managed to sneak up and do some shooting up ahead. I saw cuffed detainees who were being led away. And as they were being led away, they had to go through a line of FRU police, and through that line, they were kicked and punched even though they were cuffed. I didn’t get to shoot that long as one policeman grabbed me and chucked me aside (you can see it in my video above… you can even hear the police screaming “halau cameraman!”) and told me to go away or else.

Nevertheless, the crowd was massive and loud. I was proud to play my part in democracy.

Malaysiakini.TV caught me on video running like a little bitch! But in defence of my macho-ness… the police were firing in my direction!