Bersih’s Mandeep slams Rafizi for attack on Ambiga
(FMT) – Bersih 2.0 secretariat member Mandeep Singh has accused Rafizi Ramli of being unable to take criticisms from people who have always supported the cause of Pakatan Harapan as well as PKR.
Expressing his dissatisfaction with the PKR vice-president, Mandeep took to Twitter to convey his feelings over Rafizi’s criticism of former Bersih chairperson Ambiga Sreenevasan.
“Ambiga signed the Citizen’s Declaration and became so unpopular among CSO & she goes around pasar malam to get signatures for you people on a daily basis,” Mandeep said in his first tweet.
He was referring to the Citizen’s Declaration signing ceremony in March last year, involving opposition leaders and former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and former deputy prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin, among other ex-Umno leaders.
Many civil society organisations (CSO) had criticised Ambiga for her presence in the event, especially with Mahathir’s track record against opposition and rights activists in the past.
Earlier today, Rafizi had reportedly questioned Ambiga’s neutral position after being criticised by the prominent human rights lawyer for airing PKR’s internal squabbles publicly.
He was quoted by Malay Mail Online as saying that Ambiga’s remarks were “unfair, biased and misinformed”, and that she was echoing views held by his rivals in PKR.
“I am not surprised by her views because she has always been against Pakatan Harapan (PH) from day one,” Rafizi told the news portal.
Mandeep took Rafizi to task for even thinking that Ambiga had any other motive other than the good of the opposition when she had criticised PKR’s internal squabbles.
“As long as I know Ambiga, never once has she asked people to vote against PH. She criticises you people because she wants you guys to win.
“And now you accuse her of getting involved in your internal faction problem? And you accuse her of being anti-PH? What do you mean? Seriously what?” Mandeep said in his next two tweets.
Last Friday, Ambiga had in a series of tweets called for PKR to stop its internal squabbles not to drag the party down.
“PKR has been allowing their internal squabbles to drag them down. WE ARE NOT INTERESTED in their internal problems,” she said on Twitter, comparing this with the efforts by PPBM and Barisan Nasional in working hard on the ground to garner support from the grassroots.
“If PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim was out of prison, he would be crisscrossing the country, speaking to and being with the rakyat,” she said.
Mandeep raised the argument that since Ambiga brought up the issue, no one from PKR has responded to it.
“Issue raised by Ambiga was public infighting, which was not answered by anyone.
“Accusing Ambiga of siding with his rivals shows the inability to take criticism from other voices,” Mandeep wrote in his last two tweets.
