‘Early warning suggests crackdown pre-planned’

Seputeh MP Teresa Kok believes the police crackdown during the Bersih 3.0 rally was pre-planned, claiming she received an ominous warning from a Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) enforcement officer just five minutes earlier.

She testified at the Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) public inquiry this morning that she was given the warning when complaining to the officers that the roadblock they were guarding was preventing her from leaving.

“Kalau nak balik, cepatlah. Mereka nak bertindak,” Kok (right) said she was told. (If you want to go home, do it quickly. They are about to take action.)

About five minutes later as she made her way towards the Bandaraya LRT station, she said, she saw people running at a distance and clouds of tear gas behind them.

“I presume from this single line from the enforcement officer, there had been a discussion before the Bersih 3.0 rally. I presume they know what would happen next…

“It gives me the impression that the attack on the crowd had been planned,” she told the Suhakam inquiry on human rights violations during and after the rally on April 28.

Kok, who is also a Selangor government exco member, said she was attending the Bersih 3.0 rally as a participant.

Access to Jalan Parlimen blocked

Upon hearing Bersih co-chairperson Ambiga Sreenevasan call for everyone to disperse, she began making her way from the Masjid Jamek LRT station towards the Parliament, hoping to call her driver to pick her up there.

However, she found the access to Jalan Parlimen blocked and complained that it was preventing her from leaving.

“I told these enforcement officers. They didn’t answer me so I took a photograph with them and said, ‘I want to go back, please remove the blockade,’” she said.

She believed that the photo session led the officers to perceive her as friendly; hence, she was given the advice.

However, she could not recall if the DBKL officer who warned her was in the photos she took, nor could she identify him.

Later when she reached the Bandaraya LRT station and found the grille locked, she saw from the elevated station that the “attack” had started.

“Then I know what exactly was the advice from the DBKL officer,” she said.

Kok said she later reached the vicinity of the Putra World Trade Centre on foot, where her driver was able to fetch her.