Bersih rally go-ahead not up to Anwar, says Ambiga
By Yow Hong Chieh, The Malaysian Insider
KUALA LUMPUR, June 20 — The decision to continue with the planned Bersih 2.0 rally will be made by civil society groups and not any political party, its chief Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan declared last night.
The Bersih chairman distanced herself from a comment made earlier by PKR de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, who said he would ask Ambiga to call off the July 9 rally if the prime minister could guarantee free and fair elections.
“With due respect, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, this decision is not yours,” Ambiga said to applause from nearly 600 supporters at the launch of Bersih 2.0 here.
“Sorry, PKR, civil society will lead the assembly.”
Utusan Malaysia and Malay rights group Perkasa have accused Bersih of being an opposition tool to bring down the Barisan Nasional (BN) government through undemocratic means.
They allege that Pakatan Rakyat (PR) will use the rally to trigger an uprising similar to the popular protests that toppled Egypt’s Mubarak regime and now threaten governments in Libya, Syria and Yemen.
PR component parties and activists are gearing up to march on July 9 in the second such rally by election watchdog Bersih.
The first rally in 2007 saw up to 50,000 people take to the capital’s street, before they were dispersed by police armed with tear gas and water cannons.
The 2007 rally has been credited for the PR’s record gains in Election 2008, where the opposition pact was swept to power in five states and won 82 parliamentary seats.
PAS has promised to bring some 300,000 protestors this year in hopes that it will galvanise support for the opposition in the next general election, expected to be called within a year.
Perkasa and 164 other non-governmental organisations as well as Umno Youth have said they will march on July 9 to counter the Bersih rally.
