Utusan demonises Ambiga ahead of Bersih rally
By Shazwan Mustafa Kamal, The Malaysian Insider
KUALA LUMPUR, June 26 — Umno-owned Utusan Malaysia continued its attacks against Bersih 2.0 chairman Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan today with its weekend edition portraying her as anti-Malay and anti-Islam.
The Mingguan Malaysia lead story today read “Siapa sebenarnya Ambiga? (Who is the real Ambiga?” and featured pro-Umno political analysts like Perkasa member Datuk Paduka Prof Dr Ramlah Adam and Prof Datuk Dr Zainal Kling.
The article quoted the analysts as warning Malays against supporting the Bersih rally, and accused Ambiga of having a track record of “angering Muslims and Malays.”
The Malay paper pointed out that the former Bar Council president had defended apostate Lina Joy and opposed Syariah laws banning apostasy among Muslims. Utusan also said that as Bar Council president Ambiga had accepted a memorandum on the formation of an inter-faith commission, which made 14 demands which “questioned” the position of Islam.
“As a lawyer, Ambiga knows better than most that an assembly without a permit is illegal. I don’t understand why she is planning to go ahead with it despite protests from various groups,” Ramlah was quoted as saying.
UPSI academic Zainal Kling charged that the Bersih rally was political in nature, and that the organisers were pro-Pakatan Rakyat (PR).
“They (Bersih organisers) should demonstrate as a political party rather than an NGO. Then people will know what their real objectives are,” he said.
A death threat has been issued against Ambiga earlier this week for planning the July 9 rally to fight for free and fair elections. She has stressed however that the rally will carry on as planned.
