How dare you endanger our young, our women and our senior citizens

Everyone stunned at the force and extent of police reaction just because some had breached the barrier. Only at home were the aches and pains noticed and felt! Far worse though was the mental shock that our POLICE would endanger the lives of young and old. They knew the crowd was so dense that escape was extremely difficult. They wanted us to disperse so why trap people in the middle by firing tear gas from the front and from behind too? And why were they chasing after people trying to get away from the gas?

Old people, women and children had to run for their lives. It was not an illegal assembly, and they had succeeded in driving the crowd away from Dataran. Why then keep chasing all down the roads and alleys? Why close off the LRT stations so people could not leave for home easily?

So many unanswered questions. It didn't make sense.

But, I'm so glad to have done this - an eye-opener of how Malaysia could be, no race or religion mattered. People came to our aid. Most touching were the young Malay and Chinese boys and girls who tried to help us. The best and worst of human nature was on display. We are okay. My husband lost his towel and hat and has some scraped skin on his leg. It could have been so much worse. He got up and went to church at 6.30 this morning! All is well. So much to celebrate about Malaysia!

We ourselves are changed forever - less fearful now and if such a call were to come again from Civil Society, God Willing, we shall be better prepared to respond!

Renee Talalla is a language teacher who is married to a retired member of the Malaysian Diplomatic Service. Her husband is the Malaysian Ambassador to the US in the 1990s. He is almost 80 and she is 70.