Photographs of a damaged police car in yesterday’s clashes filled the front pages of the Sunday papers, with at least two major dailies fingering PKR leaders for the violent end to a mostly peaceful Bersih 3.0 rally.
Malay daily Mingguan Malaysia and English newspaper Sunday Star said PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim and deputy president Azmin Ali had both “instigated” the crowd to breach the court order stopping protesters from entering Dataran Merdeka.
According to the Sunday Star, Anwar (left in photo)
had in his speech at Masjid Negara told protesters to “proceed to
Dataran, whatever happens”, but said it was Azmin’s speech that changed
the mood. “It is believed that the crowd became unruly after a speech by PKR deputy president Azmin Ali who asked the demonstrators ‘if you want to occupy Dataran Merdeka’.
“His question was met with cries of “hancur rempuh, buka pagar” (crash and destroy, open the fates,” the Sunday Star reported, adding that this happened after Bersih co-chairperson Ambiga Sreenevasan had called for a dispersal.
“As Anwar reached Jalan Raja, and was about to address the crowd, a large group breached the barricades and rushed towards the square.”
Mingguan Malaysia also reported that it had information that PAS had briefed its members attending the protest that “Dataran must be ‘taken’ at any cost.”
Car crash takes centre stage
The mainstream newspapers’ coverage of the event focused mostly on the violence which occurred after 3pm, with only the Sunday Star reporting on the carnival atmosphere starting from about 9am.
Most of the photographs published were either of damaged property, debris or of yellow-clad protesters hurling objects purportedly at the police and damaging police vehicles.
These
include the incident at Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman, where a police car
crashed into two protesters, which resulted in protesters beating up an
officer who was in the car. An eyewitness video, however, also show other protesters saving the officer from further assault and protecting another officer from being hit.
The dailies also report that the angry protesters overturned the police car in retaliation, but the video records protesters lifting the car to its side thinking that there was someone trapped underneath.
Berita Minggu reported that 11 police personnel were injured, suffering swollen eyes, cut lips, fractured bones and receiving stitches, believed to be due to assault by protesters.
However, there was little mention of police assault on protesters and how press photographers were stopped from capturing such incidents.
Al Hijrah videographer Mohd Azri Mohd Salleh, who was trampled and hit by protesters when he tried to protect the officer whose had crashed his car into protesters, was featured in several papers.
Mingguan Malaysia had also featured a bloody photopraph of Malay Mail photographer Muhamad Arif Kartono, with the headline ‘Media personnel too become Bersih supporters’ victims’.
Malay Mail editor Terence Fernandez yesterday confirmed that Muhamad Arif was not assaulted by protesters but by several uniformed police personnel, and his camera was smashed.
Man dies of heart attack
Meanwhile Sunday Star reported that Hospital Kuala Lumpur (HKL) had confirmed that a 65-year-old man who was involved in the protest died of a heart attack at about 11am at Petaling Street.
HKL said 65 others, including two police officers, were brought in for treatment either by ambulance or friends.
The police officers had broken teeth and diabetes respectively, while the rest were treated for “trauma created injuries”.
The New Sunday Times, which front-paged the rally with the headline ‘Day of Shame’, also reported that DAP vice-chairperson Tunku Abdul Aziz Tunku Ibrahim, who opposed the Bersih 3.0 demonstration being held at Dataran, was “appalled” by the outcome.
“The temptation to say I told you so is compelling but I shall refrain from gloating over it,” he was quoted as saying.
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