Anti-Bersih thuggery at work

'The real motive of Umno Youth and Perkasa is to frustrate the effort of Bersih. They will not organise a rally if Bersih is denied permission to hold one.'

Rally organisers to be summoned to Bukit Aman

Quigonbond: Moral of the story: It does not matter if you try to be civilised and engage the police with a constructive discussion on how to proceed with the rally peacefully.

The police's and Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussien's intention is to stubbornly halt the rally, and the only reason Umno Youth and Perkasa are there is to make him look fair, if not reasonable.

It's a no-win situation for Hisham. If all three groups take to the streets, his moral authority is dented. If Perkasa and Umno being good boys tow the line, it's a win for Bersih. If he then makes arrests or detains Bersih organisers, his moral authority will sweep the floor. If he sends in the FRUs (riot police), Malaysia will be shamed three times as bad as back in 2007, and one can only speculate what mid-term repercussions there will be for BN.

My suggestion to him - embrace Malaysian's right to peaceful assembly, and facilitate them instead. Even if one million people turn up, you can say there are still the other 27 million silent majority who may not be supportive.

Lusiapa: "Lu apa kuasa mahu kacau Bersih punya rally? Lu peguam tetapi ta'da baca constitution. Lu ingat rakyat lagi bodoh; lu sendiri bodoh lah, (expletive deleted)."

These words, reported almost verbatim here were uttered fairly loudly by an emotional senior citizen in a LRT train this morning in obvious reference to the home minister's poor handling of this controversial issue.

It appears that more and more people, even those so-called less educated ones, are beginning to know their constitutional rights as citizens. An encouraging sign indeed.

Pemerhati: It looks like PM Najib Razak and Hishammuddin have probably given the order to the police to arrest the top organisers of the rally. The impending sandiwara trial of the 'Datuk T' trio seems to be timed to create an illusion that the law is applied equally to all.

If the opposition comes into power, people like Najib, Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Abdul Taib Mahmud and many others will flee and hide in some other country. This is because they know they are likely to be brought to justice for plundering billions of ringgit of the people's money and various other crimes.

To forestall such a possibility, Mahathir, the patron of Perkasa (Malaysia's Ku Klux Klan) seems to have let loose his rabid and rabble-rousing Ibrahim Ali to try and polarise the country, while Najib is likely to increasingly misuse the whole government machinery to persecute and neutralise anyone who might jeopardise the chances of BN's victory in the coming rigged elections.

Raja Chulan: I have faith and confidence in S Ambiga and Bersih 2.0. I will definitely rally.

Mohan Ghandi: Hisham, your total lack of objectivity and sense or fairness is well known to all Malaysians. You are well aware of the weaknesses in our electoral rolls. There are people aged over 100 years voting and also we have same names and IC numbers appearing in multiple areas. All these 'phantoms' need to be removed. That is Bersih's objective. Period.

Perkasa just wants to ensure their masters are well protected by these phantoms voters and inflated the number of their brethren. As for Umno Youth, they do not want to become irrelevant by actions of Perkasa. I hope this explanation is simple enough for you, Mr Home Minister.

James Dean: Hishammuddin, if you don't know the role of the home minister you might as well resign. Bersih have a legitimate reason to hold a peaceful rally and it is Bersih's and the rakyat's constitutional right to police protection in exercising this right just like we expect the police to keep our streets safe.

We have enough of this stuff from you, Hishammuddin. You are just as incompetent as the PM and can never do anything right. Those people out there who are causing trouble and threatening the rakyat are not roped in, but you continue to harass those who want to exercise their constitutional rights. This is truly Malaysia.

Wira: The real motive of Umno Youth and Perkasa is to frustrate the effort of Bersih. The latter two will not organise a rally if Bersih is denied permission or the legitimacy to hold one. This is how thuggery works.

Ghkok: Hishammuddin, I don't know about Perkasa and Umno Youth, but as far as I know, Bersih have every right to hold a peaceful march in support of free and fair elections. You see, free and fair elections, which Malaysia never had, is a fundamental need of the country, just like rice, roads and water.

Without free and fair elections, the country decays. Tyrants abuse the country. Malaysia need to have free and fair elections to avoid the death of our country. Hishammuddin, please don't stand in the way of the desire of the people to save the country.

Kosongcafe: Be a gentleman for once and let the march go on as planned. Get the police to ensure minimal disruptions to traffic and control the likes of Perkasa and Umno Youth from causing trouble to a peaceful demonstration.

Let Perkasa and Umno Youth have theirs on a different days. If police could handle this well, they will gain respect from the public.

DannyLoHH: I still remember vividly that during the cow head demonstration, not only that the bigoted organisers were not hauled up by the home minister, Hishammuddin had even said protests "in this day and age should be accepted in this world as the people want their voices to be heard" in a show of support for the unruly demonstrators.

Now that Bersih is pledging a peaceful and responsible march to demand free and fair elections, he wanted the police to haul up the organisers even before the gathering.

Good one Hishammuddin, with you at the helm of home minister, Pakatan Rakyat really didn't need to do much to show how incompetent, anti-democratic and morally bankrupt Umno is.

Onyourtoes: Hishammuddin, first, you must understand requiring a permit from you to hold a peaceful assembly is against the spirit and intent of the constitution. You have no power to decide that despite whatever law or regulation your police is enforcing.

Second, who are you to decide when you are not an impartial party to the issue Malaysians are now clamouring for - a free and fair election which the incumbent government has denied us for decades? The EC is not impartial, period. The EC has never tried to carry out its constitutional roles. The role of EC is constitutional, not governmental, please get it right.

We want true democracy to prevail; we don't care you what you renegades say. We don't buy your argument that democracy will bring instability and chaos - these are views of third world tribal leaders.

Lakia: Bersih organisers should sell Bersih rally T-shirts throughout the country through local NGOs and other contacts. On July 9, those who cannot join the rally can put on the T-shirt as a show of support for the rally and its cause.

In this way Bersih will get more Malaysians to be involved in its cause. After all Bersih's cause is the people's cause, so make them participate in their own cause.

Lex Suprema: Once again, LOL: not 'Lots of Laughs' but 'Lalang, Ops Lalang'... - Malaysiakini