See that yellow banner? That was mine. These thugs from PRC forcefully took it away from me. Crooks and theives, they are. For background story, read the immediate previous entry.

Then a stranger (in pink hat, in front of the flag) confronted these foreign thugs for stealing my banner.

As she tried to get the banner back, these thugs began to harass her. Many of those harassing her were the ones harassing me.

Then, the whole pack joined in.

The crowd went wild. I felt terrible about not coming to her aid at this point. She came to mine and I failed to come to hers.

And a clear shot of two thugs. I remember those faces.

Some of the photos sent to Reuters. I want these faces to go all over the world. There will be not virtual Great Wall to stop that.

I just got back from the whole event and it was a scary experience.

I have been to several rallies in the US and in Malaysia but this experience is the scariest of all.

I brought with me a yellow banner with the word “LIBERTY” on it.

After awhile walking, I was harassed by volunteers from PRC at the Dataran Merdeka and the police did nothing to help me. About 20 thugs from the so-called volunteers youth from PRC surrounded me while flying their red flags-as if trying to cover up their action-and pushing me around. While doing so, they told me not to politicize the Olympics but I told them back that the PRC politicized the Olympics back in the 40s up to the 70s. And the PRC is politicizing the Olympics even right now. Just look at the shirt they were wearing! That made them upset.

Another person shouted that this is China’s Olympics and it is not my problem, not Malaysia’s problem. He said this is a PRC event and I was told to leave. I told them back that the Olympics belongs to the whole world and THIS IS MALAYSIA, NOT COMMUNIST CHINA. That got them doubly upset and it became physical. They finally grabbed my banner and ran away. Somebody, I would want to emphasize, CHINESE MALAYSIAN woman, came to my aid to get the banner back from PRC thugs. She too was later harassed. This event caused a frenzy (the thugs from PRC were on something) and they were shouting, according to the Malaysian friend of mine, insults in Chinese. The police had to calm these thugs down.

As for the banner, it was gone.

And I am very unhappy with the Malaysian police at the Dataran Merdeka. She was harassed but she was the one given a warning while the thugs got away freely. Are Malaysian police work to protect us Malaysians or thugs from PRC?

But she turned up okay and we were interviewed by Bloomberg later. There was The Star reporter but like that newly met friend of mine said, it might not worth the while to talk to them. But I, trying to be polite, talked to the The Star reporter anyway.

Things calmed down until the relay started. I shouted FREE TIBET but was again harassed. This time one person from PRC grabbed me from behind. Being defensive, I pushed him back and shouting “TOLONG” to two police officers nearby. When the police came over but the PRC guy just walked off into the crowd. After some explanation, the police however advised me to let it go. It seems, the police feared these thugs.

After the whole hoo-ha, I noticed that some thugs were stalking me. So, I stayed close to several police officers, being friendly with them in hope those stalkers would back off. It took some time before the thugs relented.

I was slightly shaken but hey, it strengthens my belief in liberty. I’ve been so far only simulating liberty in my head but this is it. Coercion was used upon me and that is a cause for greater stress in liberty.

These thugs are not used to free speech and they tried to impose their un-free political culture back in PRC on others. To them, I say, to hell with you. And if this is how you treat differences in opinion, I would be honored to have been “brainwashed” by the “western media”.

I left Dataran Merdaka for KLCC to make another banner. Bought a yellow corru board and a blue marker from Kinokuniya (too bad there was no Carrefour around) and started redoing my banner in front of Kinokuniya. Curious onlookers watched me and one person whispered to me: free Tibet.

I later ended up at Jalan P. Ramlee but it was pouring like cats and dogs. I took some shots of the Torch but that was it. As with my new banner, the police kindly asked me to put it away. I only obliged since they asked of me kindly, but I informed them why I am doing this. They understood, they agreed with me but they just didn’t want any trouble. In the end, we ended up having a long mundane friendly conversation until I decided to leave for home.

To those in Jakarta and Sydney, be extra careful with these PRC thugs. They are rough and they have no respect for free speech. They don’t mind using force. Make sure you go in groups to protect yourself.

I didn’t have the luxury of going in groups. People like me were badly outnumbered. In fact, three Japanese protesting against occupation of Tibet were thrown out of Dataran Merdeka by the thugs. Not by the police but by the thugs. This makes me wonder, is this OUR COUNTRY or a state under communist PRC?

And that is it from Kuala Lumpur for a Free Tibet. Pictures and more reports will be posted at Metblogs KL. After all, this project is an off-shoot at Metblogs KL.

Jakarta, Sydney, over to you.

Supporters of PRC argue that western media is biased while reporting on Tibet. Well, everybody has their biases, including Chinese media. It is really hypocritical for supporters of PRC to accuse other sources critical of PRC’s handling of Tibet as biased when PRC sources themselves are controlled by the state and only report what the communist state approves of.

There is only one way to solve that: allow free media and let individuals make up their own mind from competing sources.