Lembu2 UMNO mengamuk di Pantai Dalam...

Hari Khamis 24 Mei yang lalu sepatutnya sama seperti hari-hari Khamis lain. Saya ditugaskan membuat liputan ceramah politik PKR - satu perkara yang biasa saya lakukan sebelum bertugas di Malaysiakini lagi. Ceramah itu dijadual berlangsung di Pantai Dalam, yang terletak dalam kawasan Ahli Parlimen Lembah Pantai, Nurul Izzah Anwar.

Sepanjang jalan bermula dari stesen Petronas Pantai Dalam ke tapak ceramah di PPR Pantai Permai aliran trafik lebih sesak daripada biasa.

Kelihatan pemuda-pemuda berbaju-T merah memegang kain rentang berdiri di kiri kanan jalan. Pada kain rentang tersebut tertulis mesej-mesej antaranya "Anwar kaki pusing", "Parti anak-beranak", dan "Parti Kencing Rakyat"

Saya tidak pasti sekiranya kesesakan trafik hari itu berpunca daripada kebanjiran ramai orang ke ceramah Pakatan Rakyat yang merupakan satu perkara biasa, atau kerana jalan raya ke tapak ceramah menjadi semakin sempit dengan kehadiran pemuda-pemuda berbaju merah tadi.

Kira-kira 10 meter dari tapak ceramah PKR rupa-rupanya turut berlangsung satu lagi ceramah politik. Kain rentang ceramah politik itu bertulis "Ganyang Petualang Negara", dipercayai ditujukan buat Ketua Umum PKR, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim. Jangkaan saya tepat apabila mendapati antara penceramah yang dijadualkan berucap di pentas itu adalah Ummi Hafilda Ali, seperti yang dapat dilihat pada satu kain rentang.

Wah! Ini kali pertama saya bakal melihat Ummi Hafilda berceramah dan juga ceramah politik berkembar.

Di pentas ceramah PKR, Nurul Izzah Anwar baru mengambil tempat untuk berceramah. Selang beberapa minit beliau berucap suaranya tiba-tiba 'hilang' daripada sistem siaraya.
Pada waktu itu, saya mengagak ia mugkin disebabkan gangguan teknikal yang kadang-kala berlaku pada mana-mana ceramah. Namun, pada masa sama lampu khemah menempatkan Nurul Izzah turut gelap. Rupa-rupanya tapak ceramah PKR putus bekalan elektrik.

Beberapa petugas ceramah berlari ke blok apartmen bersebelahan yang membekalkan kuasa elektrik ke tapak ceramah. Saya bergegas mengekori mereka.

"Wayar kena potong-potong! Wayar kena potong!" jerit seorang petugas. Apabila saya tiba, saya lihat wayar elektrik terputus dua. Selepas saya merakamkan beberapa keping gambar, petugas ceramah menyambung semula wayar itu dan bekalan elektrik di tapak ceramah PKR kembali pulih.

Saya beredar ke tapak ceramah Umno untuk meninjau suasana di situ. Ummi Hafilda sedang berucap dan kira-kira 200 orang berpakaian merah sedang mendengar ucapannya. Mereka memenuhi kira-kira dua daripada lima khemah tersedia. Ummi kelihatan manis - berjubah kain licin nipis berwarna hijau. Ummi berucap menggunakan rostrum dan sambil berucap kain jubahnya ditiup angin kipas pentas di belakangnya.

Saya kembali ke tapak ceramah PKR dan mengambil tempat hampir dengan khemah ceramah untuk mengikuti ceramah Anwar yang baru menaiki pentas.. Kini Anwar sedang berucap.

Tiba-tiba, beberapa orang hadirin di sebelah saya bangun berdiri dan keadaan bertukar menjadi kecoh. Saya tertanya-tanya apa yang berlaku. Mereka bising-bising dan meninjau-ninjau ke arah belakang.

Rupa-rupanya salah seorang daripada mereka dibaling telur dan mereka cuba mencari dari arah mana datangnya telur itu. Anwar yang menyedari perkara itu meminta hadirin bertenang dan meneruskan ceramahnya semula.

Selang beberapa minit Anwar berucap, tiba-tiba hadirin ceramah berhampiran saya kembali berdiri dan keadaan kembali kecoh. Namun suasananya kali ini terasa lebih panik. 

Saya ternampak seorang wanita mempamerkan wajah takut selepas beliau meninjau ke bahagian belakang khemah tersebut. Pada masa itu juga beberapa kamera video yang merakam ucapan Anwar diangkat dan jurukamera bergegas berpusing ke belakang.

"Beri laluan! Beri laluan!" jerit suara dari arah belakang saya. Seorang lelaki tua berbaju putih dengan kesan tompok darah dipapah dekat dengan pentas ceramah dalam keadaan tidak bermaya. Apabila beliau dipapah semakin dekat dengan tempat saya berdiri, kelihatan darah mengalir keluar dari dahinya dengan tidak berhenti-henti.

Orang ramai mendudukkan beliau di atas kerusi di hadapan pentas. Keadaan sekeliling bertambah panik kerana darah masih terus mengalir keluar dari dahinya dan menitik ke atas baju-T beliau. 

Melihat keadaan lelaki itu Anwar melaungkan "Pemuda Umno sial! Pemuda Umno sial!" melalui sistem pembesar suara.

Lelaki itu kemudian diusung keluar dari tapak ceramah dan dibawa ke tempat lain masih dalam keadaan separa sedar - dipercayai untuk rawatan.

Tidak berpuas hati dengan perkara yang berlaku, penyokong lelaki PKR mula berdiri dan bergerak ke arah pintu pagar kuarters DBKL yang memisahkan ceramah PKR dan ceramah Umno.

Pada masa sama penyokong Umno dari dalam kawasan kuarters DBKL turut bergerak ke arah pagar tersebut. Namun jumlah mereka hanya dianggarkan satu perlima daripada penyokong PKR.

Di pentas Umno, Ummi masih berceramah begitu juga Anwar di tapak ceramah PKR.

Penyokong kedua-dua pihak mula menjerit-jerit ke arah satu sama lain. Kedua-duanya kelihatan seolah-seolah sedia untuk bertempur dan akan memanjat pagar ke sebelah pihak satu lagi jika polis tidak berkawal berhampiran pagar itu.

Keadaan yang sama berterusan sewaktu Ahli Parlimen Shah Alam Khalid Samad mula berucap di sebelah PKR. Di pihak Umno, Ummi Hafilda masih lagi berucap. Namun beliau akan menghentikan ucapannya untuk mendengar butiran ucapan Khalid Samad dan membidasnya secara spontan.

Saya kini berada di antara pagar yang memisahkan kedua-dua penyokong. Dari tempat saya berdiri, sekali sekala saya ternampak beberapa penyokong Umno dengan bendera Malaysia diikat menyembunyikan wajah mereka melontar telur dan botol air mineral ke arah penyokong PKR. Polis berdiri memerhatikan perkara tersebut tetapi mereka tidak pula melarangnya.

Sekitar dua puluh minit kemudian keadaan tegang beransur reda. Sorak-menyorak sudah berkurangan. Saya kembali ke tapak ceramah PKR. Khalid Samad sedang berucap dan menceritakan kejayaan-kejayaan negeri Selangor kepada penduduk setempat.

Saya dan rakan setugas, Koh Jun Lin dihampiri seorang lelaki. Menurutnya ada seorang budak perempuan turut menjadi mangsa lontaran batu pada malam itu. Kami mengikut lelaki itu ke bahagian khemah penceramah dan menemubual budak perempuan itu dengan ditemani ibunya.

Ceramah berakhir tidak lama kemudian apabila Khalid Samad membacakan doa sebagai penutup ucapan beliau.

Merenung kembali perkara yang baru sahaja berlaku beberapa minit lalu, saya tidak dapat membayangkan bagaimana suasana pilihan raya umum kelak.

Bukti video UMNO mulakan provokasi bukan Anwar di Lembah Pantai.

Ceramah continue to expose more sandbox politics...

It was when a bloodied old man stumbled out of a crowd and collapsed on a chair before us, when we realised that we were in the midst of trouble at PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim's ceramah last Thursday night.

The incident obviously enraged Anwar, who was moments earlier calling for calm saying, "They are throwing again? Sigh. Stay calm and remember. Tonight we are witnessing the ways of Umno and Umno Youth. They have no morality."
Then the mood turned when the opposition leader saw the victim, in semi-conscious state, bleeding from his forehead.

"A person is injured by projectiles! A person is injured! Curse (celaka) you, Umno people! Curse you! A person has been injured because he had been hit by rocks thrown by Umno Youth. Curses!" he yelled.

He directed that the man be taken away for medical attention while we took pictures and started writing our stories on the spot, paying little heed to the speeches that we were supposed to cover.

We had been assigned to report on the ceramah at the Pantai Permai public housing flats that night. Earlier at 1.15pm, we received word from the Lembah Pantai MP's political secretary Fahmi Fadzil to expect trouble.

"Umno ceramah nearby. Our banners were cut or vandalised. Anti-Anwar banners put up near Angkasapuri," read his SMS when asked why he was worried.

Lasers make dramatic entrance

At first, it was just a group of 80 in red Umno Youth T-shirts, carrying anti-PKR banners chanting "Tibai (whack)," which is also the acronym of an anti-Anwar group.

As Fahmi had warned, there was an Umno ceramah in the vicinity. In fact, it was next door at the Kuala Lumpur City Hall staff quarters.

At the time, we kept an eye out for trouble without expecting any.

Batu MP Tian Chua was the first to speak, and was fortunate to complete it undisturbed.

Then PKR Youth chief Shamsul Iskandar Mohd Akin took his turn, only to be targeted by green lasers. He ignored the blinding light and soldiered on.

It was at 10.25pm when Lembah Pantai MP Nurul Izzah Anwar's (left) speech had just started, that the lights blinked out, the speaker fell silent, and a green laser turned on her. Her speech would have to wait.

An egg had also landed just a metre in front of one of us, but in the dark, open venue, it was difficult to tell where the missiles were coming from. We only felt their impact.

People were also pointing at the presumed source of the missiles, either at the Umno ceramah venue, or the spectators looking from the apartments above. The chants of "Reformasi" slowly degenerated into random noise.

We saw people rushing into a corridor behind the VIP tent, and we followed them to find several PKR supporters attempting to repair a cut wire. It had been deliberately done, they claimed.

At that point on the Umno side, Ummi Hafilda was addressing some 200 red-clad audience occupying two of the five tents set up.

She looked sweet in her green satin-like robe. She was standing before a rostrum with a fan blowing behind her.

Meanwhile at the PKR ceramah, power was restored and Nurul Izzah, who is the local MP, resumed with her speech but only to flinch backwards as if to dodge something, while her bodyguards rushed forward to provide a human shield, their eyes apparently scanning area for further threats.

Nurul Izzah resumed her speech once she had regained her composure, but now spiced with such fury that neither of us had seen before.

"I have been campaigning for a long time, since (my predecessor) Shahrizat Abdul Jalil's reign, but this is the worst ever.

"(But) I think this is the last time BN would form the government," she said, before going on to, among others, condemn Umno for vandalising their flags, disturbing their ceramah, saying that the people will never forget nor forgive this transgression.

She ended her speech shouting "Reformasi". Even that came in an unfamiliar, angry tone.

Soon, it was her father's turn at the mike when suddenly the atmosphere became infused with confusion and anger once more.

People were making noise and looking over their shoulders. It turned out that an egg had found its mark on a member of the audience. Anwar appealed for calm and continued.

Returning to kindergarten ways
 
"Make way! Make way!" people shouted.

That was when we saw the old man. And that was when Anwar lost his cool. Then we realised we were not reporting on the speeches any more.

Unhappy with the incident, PKR and Umno supporters closed their distance, separated only by a brick-and-mortar fence. Meanwhile, Anwar and Ummi Hafilda continued with their speeches at their respective places.

The two groups were shouting at each other, looking prepared to climb over the fence to fight it out. At this point, the police rushed in from the Umno venue and ordered both sides to back off.

There was a relative calm after that, and it was Shah Alam MP Khalid Samad's turn at the microphone.

By now, Ummi Hafilda (left) had stopped her speech to turn and hear Khalid's before setting forth her counter arguments.

Monitoring both ceramah from the fence, Umno supporters with Jalur Gemilang as masks were seen throwing eggs and water bottles at their PKR counterparts every once in a while.
The police, meanwhile, just stood by and watched.

Over the next 20 minutes, the situation gradually returned to normal. The cheering and shouting died down and we met up again in front of the PKR VIP tent to catch Khalid winding up his speech.

Then, a man approached us.

"Are you from the media? Come, a girl has been injured," he said.

We followed him and found a little girl with her mother resting in the VIP tent. She had just seen a doctor and had a bandage on her arm, on which a fist-sized brick had landed, so we interviewed them both on what had taken place.

The time of the interview was 11.45pm, just 15 minutes shy of her 12th birthday, we were told.

Khalid Samad ended his speech soon after with a prayer at midnight, and the crowd left the area followed by Pakatan Rakyat leaders.

They disappeared into a night market behind the apartment, leaving us standing where we were, dissecting the night's events.

source:malaysiakini

cheers.