In Bersih row, BN risks electoral fallout

Police have effectively shut down Kuala Lumpur in order to circumvent the rally. — Reuters pic

KUALA LUMPUR, July 9 — The Najib administration risks losing crucial votes needed to keep power in the next general election, as analysts and politicians believe that Barisan Nasional’s (BN) continued hostility towards Bersih will only damage the ruling coalition’s image and credibility.

Pundits said Putrajaya’s clampdown on Bersih even after it agreed to hold its July 9 rally inside a stadium showed the government is adamant in not allowing the protest to take place on the streets or within the walls of a stadium.

The polls reform group have questioned the police’s intentions in using court orders to bar its leaders from entering the city today. The court order prevents 91 people from Bersih, Umno Youth and Perkasa from entering the capital.

Umno supreme council member Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan admitted that the government’s actions in banning Bersih would affect votes in the next national polls, but insisted that any form of preventive measure was necessary to maintain and preserve the security of the country.

“We know we’re going to be hit politically, we know that, no government wants to lose votes... so then why do we do it?

“We have to do what we need to do; the police need to take preventive action. The opposition is not responsible for the security of the country... I think we’d rather be cautious and preventive than do nothing,” he told The Malaysian Insider.

Asked whether the handling of the Bersih affair indicated a ceding of power by the government to the police, Abdul Rahman agreed.

But the Kota Belud MP defended the police’s role in the affair, and stressed that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had to listen to the police when it came to “security concerns” due to the police having more experience in the matter.

Merdeka Center director Ibrahim Suffian believes that the government is pushing the responsibility of handling the Bersih rally to the police, and police action so far — mass arrests, confiscations and roadblocks — will do little to defuse the boiling tension ahead of the rally today.

“It does not seem like they are handling it in a way to defuse the situation... passing the buck to the police maybe a convenient way out, but it will affect the government when voters go to the ballot box,” Ibrahim told The Malaysian Insider.

Dr Faizal Hazis, an academic from Unimas agreed with Ibrahim’s views, and said Putrajaya could have avoided matters from escalating to such a tipping point.

“It is evident that the government purposely does not want the rally to take place, whether in a stadium, closed door or anything... the government has not been sincere, this was done in bad faith, and voters will remembers this,” the analyst told The Malaysian Insider.

PKR vice-president Nurul Izzah Anwar charged that the current clampdown by the police against Bersih was akin to being in a police state.

“We will effectively be at the mercy of the police, living the reality of a police state. Hence, there is little choice but for us to peacefully resist, by rallying in support of Bersih 2.0 this July 9,” she told The Malaysian Insider.

DAP national publicity secretary Tony Pua concurred, saying the police’s recent actions showed that it has seized “overtly political role” to repress any form of dissent, and were nothing more than BN’s militia arm.