Blogger: MP ran at cops
(The Star) – The video showing Batu MP Tian Chua charging at a police line has got PKR scrambling to explain their vice-president’s action even as the matter became a major talking point in cyberspace.
A committee member of Bersih 2.0, Haris Ibrahim, who is also Malaysian Civil Liberties Movement president, posted the video on his blog, The People’s Parliament, and demanded an explanation from Tian Chua.
In his postings on Thursday, Tian Chua Have You Been A Bad Boy? and Confirmed Tian Chua Was A Bad Boy, were accompanied by raw footage of the incident.
The posts drew a host of comments from netizens, including some who demanded an apology from the MP for tarnishing the Bersih 2.0 rally.
The clip showed Tian Chua counting satu, dua, tiga (one, two, three) before rushing towards riot police with several others in tow.
His fellow vice-presidents, R. Sivarasa and N. Surendran, held a press conference yesterday in an attempt to explain Tian Chua’s actions, claiming the MP never charged at the police line.
Surendran said police had boxed in protesters in the narrow underpass and acted excessively without giving time for protesters to disperse and Tian Chua could have come to his own decision to move towards the police line as there was nowhere else to escape once police action commenced.
Sivarasa, who is also Subang MP, claimed that the footage was released by the police and was a distortion of facts.
“The issue had been picked up by some bloggers who may have completely misunderstood or been misled over the footage,” he said.
In his explanation posted on The People’s Parliament, Tian Chua denied he had charged at the police as insinuated by the mainstream media.
“Anybody in those circumstances could notice the danger of staying in the enclosure once the police fired tear gas. The video footage only showed a few people rushing towards the open air,” he said.
Haris pointed out the footage that he posted were not from the police but were recorded by an eye-witness.
The police had also released video clips, which were also aired on RTM, to answer allegations made by those who participated in the rally but none of them addressed the Tian Chua issue.
SEE VIDEO HERE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFWduXFANAI
