So traffic in KL was worse than usual or something?

Hats off to the thousands of protesters in KL demonstrating against the ISA. Police action was predictable, which just made the whole thing even more... I'm not sure if "spectacular" is appropriate but I'm hard-pressed to think of something better.

Pic by Malaysiakini

I've said it before and I'll say it again: the police action against these kinds of protests just don't make any damned sense to me. I mean, what's the worst that could happen? It was, by all accounts, a peaceful demonstration before the cops showed up. The crowds show up to wherever it was they're supposed to go, make some noise, then after a couple of hours everyone gets bored and goes home. Weeks later, everyone forgets the whole thing. END OF STORY. Sending out the riot police doesn't exactly allow stories to die a quiet death, you know. Three words that I find myself repeating over and over again for the last couple of years: they never learn.

This made me laugh, though:

Mohd Khairul Azamdin, legal adviser to pro ISA Majlis Gabungan NGO Pembela Negara walks through police blockade and is now at the the Palace to hand over a memorandum urging that the ISA be retained. He is alone.

I'll bet he was.

Also hilarious is the fact that, even though just about every major outlet in Malaysia is covering the demonstration, Bernama has literally nothing on the protests. In fact, as of this writing, their lead headline is about Najib asking Nik Aziz not to hurt UMNO members' feelings or something. Seriously.