Bersih clampdown has shamed Malaysia, says PAS
By Shannon Teoh, The Malaysian Insider
KUALA LUMPUR, July 12 — PAS lamented the crackdown on Saturday’s Bersih rally, saying today that media reports have disgraced Malaysia especially in the eyes of Southeast Asian neighbours.
PAS deputy president Mohamad Sabu said the world has seen how the events of Saturday in the federal capital contrasted with how Malaysians were allowed to gather peacefully overseas on the same day “without a single arrest.”
“In Southeast Asia, only Malaysia and Myanmar are at this level,” he said, referring to the nation that was under military rule for nearly half a century until an election last year, which was widely described as fraudulent,” he told a press conference here.
Mohamad, who is popularly known as Mat Sabu, was among the nearly 1,700 arrested in the crackdown. All were later released the same day.
The Jakarta Post and Straits Times, leading English dailies in Indonesia and Singapore respectively, criticised this morning the clampdown on the tens of thousands who poured into the city last weekend, resulting in the massive arrests, scores injured and the death of the husband of a PKR division leader.
The Wall Street Journal also slammed the Najib administration for creating an atmosphere of “fear and repression” and predicted that the “silent majority” would soon speak out against Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.
“The international media understands our demands for clean elections.
Even Singapore was restrictive like Malaysia but they have reformed and now their candidates get media access,” Mohamad said, referring to the island republic which saw the ruling People’s Action Party slip from 65 to 60 per cent of the popular vote.
Ahead of diplomatic meetings with British Prime Minister David Cameron and Pope Benedict XVI, Najib had taken the unusual step of sending Umno secretary-general Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Mansor to Jakarta to insist that the Bersih rally was just a ruse by Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, who is popular as a Muslim leader in Indonesia.
Bersih had claimed a turnout of 50,000 for the street demonstration which went ahead without police permission.
The electoral reforms movement decided to take to the streets despite previously accepting Najib’s offer to move the street rally to a stadium after the government refused to allow the gathering to take place in Stadium Merdeka.
This came after the Yang di-Pertuan Agong called on the government a week ago to execute its duties fairly and for it to meet Bersih and discuss the issue of free and fair elections.
Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin had intervened after a police dragnet that had seen over 100 arrests, the raiding of the Bersih secretariat and confiscation of Bersih-related materials in the space of a week.
