Well, I did get a taste of the tear gas….but not even half as bad as some of those in the video did. Seriously.
The dogs in red helmets, enforcing their master’s will.
Yes, I was at the protest and I just got back. I am alright, even though I had to contend with a chokeful of tear-gas during the march, causing most of the participants to disperse. Getting the gas into your eyes and lungs is not something which you want to do. Seriously.
But I was proud to be there and battle-weary as I was, I think the GMP protest march did manage to meet its objective: to show the Western-influenced Barisan Nasional government that their implementation of the policy to teach English in Science and Mathematics is rejected by a significant majority of the masses.
I am not surprised that there would be these so-called “know-alls” who would label yesterday’s success of closing down a blatantly anti-Islamic forum as the result of “mob rule”. These people think they can speak for Islam, but the protesters who attended yesterday’s protest were indeed voicing the feelings of the Muslims on the ground about the forum. I have seen the video of the protest and some of the leaders who organised the protest were sane and rational individuals, although the same cannot be said for one or two individuals who attended and tried to pick a fight with another protester.
Those ridiculous “propaganda adverts” that I see currently being run on the two government stations about “Demonstrasi Bukan Budaya Kita” (translation: “Demonstrations Are Not Part of Our Culture”) annoy me to no end. The intention of trying to appeal to the fallacy of poisoning the well is clearly propagandistic in nature and has nothing to do with any altruistic intentions. Plus the airing images of the Pakistani protests (although what a South Asian country has to do with a Southeast Asian one sure beats the hell out of me, so maybe that part about “culture” must be correct) is an example of how the mainstream media is being manipulated to twist history according to the interests of their masters in Putrajaya.