Tuesday, September 01, 2015

My Share of Bersih 4

The date was 29 August 2015 and the time was around 1pm where me and my wife brought our bicycles to join our friends to witness and support a rally that will be historical.
A group of us met up at Puduraya, the atmosphere was very jovial and it was as if it was a carnival where people would come out to the streets for a celebration. We cruised around the neighbouring areas and stopped over at Chinatown for a lunch break. Business was really good that most of the food stuffs have been sold out and we had to eat whatever was available.
Though there were several roads closed for the preparation of Merdeka celebration, the traffic was quite alright most probably many have abstained from driving into the city.
We enjoyed moving from one street to another checking the situation of the rally and nothing was tense at all. The Yellow mass was slowly building up, there were reports that the number went as high as 250,000 and that was a huge rally indeed..
Even the Tourism Minister was happy with this peaceful mass rally, it was broadcasted in international news such Al Jazeera, BBC and CNN, it had someway promoted our country. The world was actually watching us!
There wasn't any element that shows any negativity during this demonstration in fact we all love our beautiful country Malaysia and will be celebrating our 58th Independence Day.
No way that I was able to get into RSC for a cold beer, I had to take my beer elsewhere.
As we were manuvering in this crowded atmosphere, we bumped into many cycling friends and all were enjoying the long weekend in the city.
At last we found a drinking hole. What a good stop before we continued to "kapoh" again.
The crowd was getting bigger and bigger as we moved into a busy corner in Chinatown for the famous Hokkien mee.
Again the business was doing superbly well we had to wait quite a while for our ikan bakar.
I spent a night at Ancasa Hotel, Puduraya just to be close to the rally. There were many demonstrators sleeping on the road and pavements near Dataran Merdeka, my salute to these hard cores.
On the second day of Bersih 4 we started at Petaling Street fresh and ready to go. The yellows were seen slowly coming out from everywhere. Let's have a good breakfast before we roll to Dataran Merdeka.
Our simple breakfast at Chinatown before we join the crowd again.
Let's be part of Day 2, I was skeptical as to whether the crowd could come back as huge as the day before, some of my friends have mentioned that they won't be coming back for Day 2. I prayed for a good number.
I saw new faces on Day 2 and it's fiesta time again.
It was nice to see there were many smiling volunteers assisting in such a situation like this all in the name for a change.
Medical teams were around and ready for any untoward eventualities.
As for me it was also an excellent timing to meet an old buddy on a day like this.
Taking photos with popular politicians were common and part of the excitement .
More and more cycling friends were seen coming into the scene.
Giving a hand or two was a privilege at this historical moment like Bersih 4.
The crowd has come from all over the country, hotel bookings were at its peak and business was good.
It was time to go home and rest. So far everything went on smoothly there wasn't any news of any untoward incidents that could have smear the reputation of the organisers. I will be back before the count down for Merdeka.
The spirit in me was still strong and I came back for the last two hours just before the clock strikes 12 and that will be the end of the 34 hours rally for the first time in Malaysia. Thank goodness it ended up peacefully, it was well organised and a million thank you to the organisers, the participants, the organisations that donated the facilities, drinks, food and cash. Well Done again Bersih 4.
Well, we don know whether the objectives could be achieved or not but we will know in the later stage. Most importantly everyone was safe and let us hope that Malaysia will change and progress for a better future.

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