Was it a set up?

Now that both the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and former PM Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad have claimed that Bersih 3.0 was an attempt to topple the Barisan Nasional government, commentators will now have to figure out if the authorities had staged a trap to set up Pakatan Rakyat politicians and the Bersih organisers.


The police claim they did not fire tear gas and water cannons till the barricades surrounding Dataran Merdeka were breached.


And today, Bernama Online reported that photographs obtained by police show that protesters intentionally breached a barricade separating the Bersih 3.0 rally demonstrators from Dataran Merdeka.


“The stampede showed they had intended to enter Dataran Merdeka, which was guarded by police and Kuala Lumpur City Hall personnel,” KL police chief Datuk Mohmad Salleh was quoted as saying in the report, Malaysian Insider reported.


But a thorough observation of the sequence of events and how easily the barricade was breached suggest that the cops had set up a very, very suspiciously flimsy barricade which could be breached with a mere push.


Just look at this video and see how easy it was for the Indian man to push aside the metal fence barriers. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yGCDOcchB8

It was just too easy for the Indian man to push aside the
 metal fence barriers which were not even chained together.

The demonstrators just pushed aside the metal fence barriers.

The metal fence barriers were not even locked together. They were just placed in a line and a mere push was sufficient to breach the so-called barricade.


Also look at the rows of cops. Earlier, they were lined up behind the metal barriers, but when the barriers were simply pushed aside, the cops retreated and ran back to where the riot police trucks were located. They did not even attempt to push back the demonstrators.


This allowed hundreds of demonstrators to dash forward towards Dataran Merdeka where the trucks armed with water cannons were stationed. When the demonstrators were close enough, jets of chemical-laced water were rained on them before tear gas was fired. The cops had the excuse to fire because the barricade had been breached and the demonstrators were close enough to 'threaten' them.

The cops RETREATED and ran back to where the riot
police trucks were located when the barricades were breached.

Frankly I did not notice all these clues suggesting that it was a set up by the authorities till my British neighbour pointed them out to me.


"Look at the plastic road barriers that formed parts of the barricades. These are normally filled with water and are very heavy. But the demonstrators could be seen lifting them and throwing them aside or at the cops. These barriers were empty. If they were filled with water, a single person would not be able to lift one up and throw it," he said.

The plastic road barriers were pushed aside
 easily because they were not filled with water.

A demonstrator lifting a plastic road barrier to
throw at the cops. If it was filled with water, it would be too heavy for one person to even lift it.

So you have metal fences that were not locked or chained together and you have plastic road barriers that were empty and light. It was a 'barricade' designed to be breached.


The cops more or less 'invited' the demonstrators to breach the barricades so that they would have the 'valid reason' to clamp down real hard, fire the water cannons and tear gas and whack a few heads with batons.