Bersih 2.0 - The Story Behind the Picture (Part 2)

A photographer's job is never an easy one.

One would look in awe beautifully crafted pictures, but we seldom have second thought about the conditions they were taken in in the first place. I can't recall on the number of times we were tear gassed, but I am sure the professionals have dodged live bullets in the course of discharging their duties at war zones.

My brother Fadhil, who was in the thick of the actions, was somehow pictured while on duty.

This was taken by the al-Jazeera website, take by Damir Sagolj of Reuters.

He is the guy in white, though the hero that day would be
the thousands of Malaysians braving the tyranny of police like the
guy in the picture, and those in the background.

It shows him in action. Obviously he was at the battle front, and with so many cameras covering the event, he was bound to be 'captured' by another photographer's lense. 

So glamour la kejap.

But let's look at Damir Salgojl in action, as captured by Fadhil himself.

Damir in action. Simple attire, and perhaps with only
one lense on his right side. But the face can't be seen from this shot.
Taken by Hariri Photographers - MFH.

It is taken at precisely the same moment as Damir clicked his camera. So we can see the police act in capturing the protester from two different angles.

Still Damir is obscured in the picture

Now we can see him a bit better. That's a masked Damir, no wonder
he took wonderful pictures; he is fully protected. I definitely will be
buying my mask soon as I expect more rallies to be coming our way!
Hahaha, i wish it was that easy. I have to respect the pro from Reuters/AFP!

Seriously even though this entry is about the photographers - Damir and Fadhil, I pity the guy in the picture. The police was really having a go at him, and from the four pictures, it didn't look like he was retaliating.

This brother of mine, while he is no match for Damir in term of his photography skills, matched Damir in term of enthusiasm and passion, even though at times his passionate may cross the boundary; the fine line between a photographer recording the event, and as a participant in the rally.

Anyway, his passion is so much that it pains him to see the police beating their own fellow citizens, the very public they are supposed to protect (as eloquently verbalised by the lady in the entry below).

If he has his ways, I am sure he would have saved the participants from the brutality of the police.

Here is another example.

Again this is the Hariri Photographer (MFH) in action as the policemen
were trying to apprehend the public. I think he was
trying to prevent the police from beating up this guy.

Taken by another Hariri Photographers - MGH. (Zali)

I know I would not dare to cross path with the police like he did. He is right in the middle of the actions. I still wonder how he managed not to be in black maria or the police truck, but I am sure he has his way.

He said in a response to his picture being captured by Reuters, "Hati Fadhil hancur. Kalau ikut hati memang tak sanggup dah tengok peristiwa ni berlaku depan mata. UMNO menggunakan POLIS untuk memukul budak2 melayu yang setaraf anak sedara Fadhil. Budak2 ni tak melawan langsung. Kalau hati tak kuat, memang Fadhil menangis dah...tengok muka fadhil betul2...hati tengah sebak masa nih...tak mampu buat apa2."

That's him, very passionate for the cause.

I was nowhere near that during the rally. By 2 pm I lost my steam; my legs refused to take me to where the actions were, so I sat hear Kotaraya watching the actions, which will be in another entry, which to my mind was like watching a chess game by a grand master.

That's him again, but in a more relaxing post.
Taken by another Hariri Photographers (MGH) - Zali

Police brutality did not take place, according to the government. It is the figment of imagination  of people bent of on causing trouble to the nation. I was there and I saw many incidents on unoprovoked attacked by the police. My bro Fadhil was there in the front line, and he came back with too many pictures and stories of police brutality.

Pictures don't lie.

Whatever I wrote on Bersih in this blog, it would be backed by the four lenses of Hariri Photographers. It is first hand information and not hearsay as propagated by the government machinery or the opposition sympathisers.

As far as we are concerned, we took pictures of the rally. We see with our very own eyes the behaviours of the participants and the response of the police.

We leave it to you to make your own judgment, after we have presented the case. If the participants were to create scene, we would say so. If we think the police has been excessive, we'll show it with the pictures.

I dislike Utusan with their seditious propaganda, and project only everything that is good about the government and everything that is bad about the opposition, but I also dislike people, from the other side of the fence, spreading rumours or half-truth stories about Bersih 2.0 without any backing and without being there themselves, with many of them just being armschair's writers and commentators.

There are always three sides to a story!