Forum against Bersih’s People’s Tribunal draws PKR scorn
Anisah Shukry, FMT
This statement probably put a beam on the faces of the 60 or so audiences amid the chaos – Bersih’s People’s Tribunal must legitimise its findings on the 13th general election by presenting them to the court of law or they would remain as “unfair opinion.”
This was said by the panelist Tan Che How and Yuktes Vijay at the forum, “Cleaning Bersih: An Analysis of Bersih’s People’s Tribunal” held yesterday evening by NGOs Pertubuhan Minda & Sosial Prihatin, and Yuktes to present “alternate views” on Bersih’s People’s Tribunal.
Shouting matches and chaos were the norm of the night with the PKR members hogging and shouting into the microphone their protests and off-topic questions to drown the speakers views.
Despite the interruptions, Tan managed to point out that many allegations of the EC’s biasness had emerged during the four-day tribunal, and that such claims should be challenged in court.
“There is no problem with the existence of the People’s Tribunal as long as it brings its findings to court. Otherwise, the findings without the scrutiny of the court could distort the people’s persection,” Tan, a lawyer who professed to be a BN supporter said.
“The tribunal had no plaintiff, no defendant. The EC and the BN boycotted it. So, any findings from the tribunal are incomplete with the probability of bisness,” he said, adding that he had intended to testify at the tribunal but was cautioned against it by his peers.
His fellow panelist, Yuktes, said by bringing the findings to court, the tribunal would also go beyond highlighting the alleged fraud in the general election and actually come up with a solution.
However, PKR members, who comprised one-third of the audience, shot down their arguments.
Led by Michael Tamil, Kashminder Singh, and Suresh Kumar, the PKR men hurled personal and childish verbal attacks such as “the moderator is a gangster!” and “Yuktes looks like Charlie Chaplin” with them almost coming to blows with the moderator G Kalaicelvan and co-organiser Ramesh Rao.
The forum took off on the wrong footing when Kalaicelvan announced that two of the four original panelists had backed out at the last minute after having allegedly received threats for their intended participation.
The situation deteriorated when Tan, the first speaker, began his presentation by pointing out it was misleading for Bersih to name the tribunal “the People’s Tribunal” or “Tribunal Rakyat.”
“The tribunal doesn’t represent the views of all the rakyat. Those who attended forum were those who were quite disappointed with the tribunal itself,” he said, drawing loud and furious protests from the 15 or so PKR members.
