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“I don't know whether to laugh or cry when the CPO told me why I was arrested. He said that 'I saw you there and if I don't arrest you, it would not be fair to the rest who were arrested'.” Malaysia-Today
Malaysia-Today briefly caught up with YB Ronnie Liu, state executive councillor , at the PJ Sessions court during RPK's sedition trial. Here is his first-hand account of the events that lead to the arrests of the 24 people during the candlelight vigil near the PJ Civic Centre. “It was a peaceful gathering. The group hurried things along as the FRU had assembled, and were singing the Negara-ku. As I saw the FRU advancing, I quickly rushed towards them, waving my arms vigorously to get their attention. They completely ignored me and kept marching towards the group who were still singing our national anthem.” “They could have simply used a loud hailer, or have a rep to approach the group, to warn the group to disperse and the group would have done so. Instead, they just marched in and charged at the crowd, arresting innocent and peaceful citizens. I just cannot understand why peaceful citizens and elected representatives were attacked”. (Besides Ronnie, PJ Utara MP Tony Pua and Kampung Tunku assemblyman Lau Weng San were also arrested). “I don't know whether to laugh or cry when the CPO told me why I was arrested. He said that 'I saw you there and if I don't arrest you, it would not be fair to the rest who were arrested'.” Ronnie was released shortly thereafter but he stayed with the rest of the detainees the whole night until 7:30am the next morning when all of them, except one who was further remanded on an existing charge, were released. (When I mentioned this to RPK later, RPK said 'That's just Ronnie-lah, he would never desert his friends!') And Ronnie was already at the court house waiting to greet RPK when we reached there at 8:25am. He sat through the hearing although he only had less than two hours of sleep that he managed while waiting for the group's release. “On reflection, I think these arrests have helped our cause. Look at the headlines and coverage in the newspapers, especially the Chinese newspapers. Now the readers know about Bersih, and the anti-ISA movement. How many people would have known or remembered about Bersih before today? Or aware that there are anti-ISA vigils being held? Where and how can you get such publicity?” Before he left to attend to his other duties, Ronnie was asked to discuss the state government's performance thus far. "Be patient and we will announce what we have done, what plans we have for the state when the time is right. We don't want to do it just to earn political mileage. But just to give you one quick example, this year alone, we have earned RM100M in revenue from selling sand since we took back the sand mines. In 2007, the BN state government earned RM17M from the same activity”. YB Ronnie Liu epitomizes how we expect our elected representatives to behave and perform, i.e. for the rakyat. Ronnie is, to Malaysia-Today, a true Yang Berkhidmat.
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