Putrajaya has to do damage control to soothe press because per esprit de corp every pressman, whether mainstream or alternative, is legitimately worried about whether he be clobbered, with his tools (camera) being ripped by police next time in covering events like this. Political elites need their good will (esp mainstream) to present their “good image” to public. To be sure once signal was given for police to launch action, one couldn’t control the power or abuse of power unleashed. In today’s social media world the mata2 also worried that they and their acts would be videoed and use as evidence against them. If police were released from their restraint to crack down on Bersih 428, as they did at 3 pm when barricades were breached, the ensuing brutality was predictable.

The more intriguing (and presently not known) is what & who triggered/facilitated the breach of the barricades at 3 pm; was it simply inability to control the crowd at points of breach or someone had a prior plan to do so, a road map towards some other objectives and whether that these objectives have been served/achieved or thwarted or invited more problems. The issue carries implications on how one reads what’s going to happen next and how to manage it. This is the main issue to focus on. Police brutality is but an expected consequence that was unleashed based on excuse of the barricade breach. Being a known factor it’s not (unlike the true circumstances surrounding the breach) a main issue in terms of divining what the players on both side of political divide are going to do next.

///Honestly, do you think this government will ever allow BERSIH 3.0 to be a roaring success? No way!!/// – DAP Man.

Well it is a question of minimising the negative effects of Bersih 3 on perception of UMNO/BN. Its lesser of 2 evils (from ruling party’s standpoint) to allow the rally to proceed peacefully at Dataran. I’ve commented earlier that Ah Jib Gor should have cooperated to be in line with his boast of best democracy, slew of purported reforms eg peaceful assembly act, bring in Kampong baru’s hawkers to make money, (and ambulances in case some people fainted) and of course ‘talk cock’ about trying his best to make electoral reforms etc. (By putting up with the event as if it were 1 Malaysia Carnival he would mitigate the negative effects against the govt). But as it is some one wanted to jam him up with sandiwara half hearted illogical measures: no police action as long as one went as far as barricades and did not cross (as if Dataran big deal) and at 3 pm using pretext of barricades breach lanuch full scale police action not only in Dataran but all parts of KL where there were multitude of Bersih participants. Full scale police action of course would involve bigger scale of violence / brutality on police part which they compounded the problem by attacking journalists and their cameras to eliminate evidence of brutality. This is a Public relation disaster for BN and a major scoop/boon to Opposition. It makes Bersih the ‘biggest’ success ever and a prelude to Bersih 4.0!. Imagine brutality by govt security forces on hundreds of thousands of peaceful Malaysians (entirely multiracial in line with 1 Malaysia) fighting a Cause (free & clean elections) unimpeachable/contradictable even by standards of dictators and worse part the occurence of violence (evidenced by social media & even maintream journalists attacked) not by protestors but by government apparatus. What could be worse Public Relations disaster than this? So who want this to happen and benefit from this…..