No more rally talks

By Lee Shi-Ian, Roy See Wei Zhi and Nadirah H. Rodzi, NST

KUALA LUMPUR: Police yesterday slammed the door shut on any further negotiations with parties intending to hold rallies on July 9.

Deputy Inspector-General of Police Datuk Seri Khalid Abu Bakar said the time for talking was over and did not rule out the possibility of rally organisers being arrested in the days leading up to July 9. He also did not discount the possibility that they would be arrested under the Internal Security Act.

In a hastily called press conference yesterday, Khalid said despite advising the rally organisers through amicable meetings, they did not show signs of backing down.

And in an immediate response, Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (Bersih) 2.0 chairman Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan insisted that the rally would go on.

Khalid told reporters that there would be no more talk with the organisers of the rallies.

“We are standing firm in not allowing any sort of illegal gathering by any party. “We will use everything within the scope of our authority to ensure that there will be no illegal gathering held on July 9,” he told reporters at Bukit Aman.

In the past few days, police had met representatives from Malay rights group Perkasa, Umno Youth, Parti Keadilan Rakyat and Bersih 2.0, in trying to get them to abort the planned rallies.

“The concerns of many parties and stakeholders have been highlighted and mentioned to the rally organisers.

“Taxi drivers, traders, tourist agencies have all lodged police reports on how their livelihood could be affected by the rally,” he said.

Until Thursday, a total of 2,136 police reports were lodged by various parties concerned about the rally.

Khalid also revealed that police would not meet Ambiga again.

Ambiga met Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Ismail Omar on Thursday, and after the meeting, told reporters she had proposed that police choose a route for the rally so that they would be able to manage the event effectively.

She had also said she would be meeting police again next week and was hopeful for an amicable solution.

Khalid, however, dashed her hopes yesterday when he said the meeting on Thursday was not to “negotiate or discuss alternative solutions, it was to advise her to call off the proposed gather ing”.

Bersih intends to hold a rally and march to Istana Negara where they hoped to hand a memorandum to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, calling for clean and fair elections. Among their demands were automatic voter registration, reforms to postal voting and the use of indelible ink.

Perkasa and Umno Youth, meanwhile, had threatened to hold counter-rallies on the same day if Bersih did not abort its gathering.