Tales of cops gone wild

Several Bersih 2.0 protesters recount the horror they experience at the hands of policemen during last Saturday's rally.

PETALING JAYA: After being beaten, bruised and handcuffed, Liew Seng Tat thought that he would be taken to the police station. But what followed shocked the 31-year-old filmmaker.

According to him, a policeman allegedly thrust a dirty towel soaked in chemical-laced water into his face.

“I heard him say ‘ambik ni’ (take that). I could not see anything. It was horrible. My face was burning from the chemical. I could not open my eyes as it stung,” he said, adding that he did not know why the policeman did that since he was already handcuffed.

Liew was recounting his ordeal at the Bersih 2.0 rally last Saturday during a meeting with Suhakam at the human rights commission’s office here today.

He was also among those who had sought refuge at the Tung Shin Hospital. The police had been accused of firing tear gas and their water cannons into the compound.

“I personally witnessed multiple rounds fired into the hospital compound; a group of policemen then rushed in and ambushed us. We tried to run up the slope but we were cornered. I really have no idea why they did this. I thought hospitals were supposed to be a safe place.

“There was a group of 10 young girls probably still in college. We men locked arms to protect them. I don’t understand, the police are supposed to be our protectors but now we were protecting ourselves from them,” he said.

Liew said when the police charged, everybody ran and he was caught and pinned to the ground.
“I was handcuffed and then some policemen started jumping on me and kicked me with their boots. I was slapped around even though I was cooperating. I wasn’t armed, I don’t look threatening. Why beat me?” he asked.

As he was being led away, Liew claimed that other policemen had hit him with their batons and punched him when he walked past.

‘They whacked the hell out of me’

Another protester, K Arun, said that he witnessed several policemen making “violent arrests” and he himself was beaten when he tried to intervene in one case.

“The rally finished at about 4pm but the cops were still arresting. I was trying to stop them from hitting one man, asking them not to beat him, but they came after me instead.I was cuffed and then they started whacking the hell out of me.

“They even threatened to kill me. ‘Bunuh dia lah’ (kill him), one of them said. Some of them had mercy, some didn’t at all. What I can say is that they were just not instructed to be kind to us,” he added.

The Suhakam panel also heard from PAS deputy president Mohamad Sabu, who suffered a torn ligament in his right knee when a police car allegedly rammed into the motorcycle he was on.

He claimed that a police Mitsubishi Pajero stopped on the side of Jalan Bangsar to force him onto the remaining open lane where a police Proton Waja rammed into his motorcycle head-on.
“My leg was caught between the two vehicles,” he said.

The PAS leader said the policemen then carried him into their vehicle and took him to the Dang Wangi police headquarters where he was treated at a clinic. He was later brought to Kuala Lumpur Hospital.
“I was in great pain the entire time. Based on the pain I was experiencing, I should have been detained at the (hospital) ward,” he added.

‘If not for the cops, he would be alive’

Another victim, Brian Yap, said he was hit multiple times by two or three policemen when he was trapped inside Tung Shin Hospital.

“I shouted ‘cukuplah (enough), you already have me’ but they kept hitting and pulled my shirt over my head so I could not see anything,” he said.

“There was no reason at all for the violence, we had almost dispersed,” said the assistant for Bukit Lanjan assemblywoman Elizabeth Wong.

Hii Tiong Huat, 60, the colourful independent candidate for Bukit Assek, Sibu, who was arrested when he waved a Malaysian flag and a signboard around at Petaling Street on July 8, said he was also badly abused.

“When they brought me in, they gave me repeated backhand slaps. It’s no joke, I received 10 or so of those slaps, my spectacles flew out and at one point I lost consciousness,” he said.

Meanwhile, the nephew of Baharuddin Ahmad, 58, who died after fleeing from policemen, said that his uncle would still be alive if not for the police.

“I’m here to seek justice. He only has high blood pressure, never had heart problems. He is from the army and always took care of his health,” said Azhar Kasim.

“I was told his ribs and teeth also broke. He had lived simply in a flat and now leaves behind three children aged 29, 22 and 19,” he added.

Claiming that the police were “instructed to abuse their powers”, Bersih 2.0 steering committee member Maria Chin Abdullah said that the first-hand accounts “spoke volumes” and showed that police action was “no holds barred”.