Dr M: Not all were beaten up by cops

(The Star) – Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has questioned his daughter’s claim of police violence during Bersih 3.0 just because 65 civilians were hospitalised as opposed to two cops.

“Many who were hurt were not beaten by the police. The demonstrators, too, attacked anyone they thought were watching or recording what was happening,” claimed the former prime minister.

“And there were the ‘red shirts’, the specially trained hooligans from PAS whose job was to use force,” he said in a letter in response to his daughter Datin Paduka Marina Mahathir’s column in The Star.

In her Musings column yesterday, Marina had written: “And, if as our Home Minister insists, nobody ordered the police violence, what made them do it, and to such a disproportionate extent? Sixty-five people wound up in hospital, out of which only two were policemen. Surely this says something.”

Dr Mahathir said Marina, who had taken part in both Bersih 2.0 and Bersih 3.0 rallies, herself was not hurt.

“That is because she did not try to break the barriers erected by the authorities. She sat down when she reached the barriers. Had all the demonstrators followed her example, no one would be hurt.”

[MTadmin – Perhaps dear Tun would like to view this video:
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Or watch at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXb6ewDPoHg]

He said Marina must have known that in other places, “barriers were pushed aside, the police cars had windscreens stamped on and broken, and overturned.”

Dr Mahathir said police needed special training to deal with mass violence, noting that these specially trained force “invariably apply the methods they are taught when dealing with any situation”.