Kit Siang: Sack those behind Bersih ‘faux pas’

By Yow Hong Chieh

July 21, 2011

The BN suppression of the Bersih rally drew media condemnation from across the globe. — file pic

KUALA LUMPUR, July 21 — The prime minister must sack all those responsible for mishandling the Bersih rally if he wishes to redeem his 1 Malaysia concept, Lim Kit Siang has said.

“If someone had been assigned beforehand to a special task to script the worst-possible scenarios... nobody could be so creative as to pre-plan the basketful of faux pas committed by the Barisan Nasional government,” the DAP parliamentary leader said in a statement today.

“As a result, the overseas visit of the prime minister to the United Kingdom, the Vatican and France has proved to be quite a disaster, with the prime minister pursued by the international media over the government’s mishandling of the Bersih 2.0 rally.”

Lim, however, pointed out that it was not too late for Datuk Seri Najib Razak to embrace the rally as a uniting experience for all Malaysians but urged him to do so quickly.

To do this Najib must lift the Bersih ban, end Barisan Nasional’s (BN) “ridiculous fear of yellow”, form royal commissions of inquiry into the electoral system and alleged police brutality, and release the six Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM) members held under the Emergency Ordinance (EO), Lim said.

“Is Najib capable of finding out why he and his government had gone so seriously wrong in grossly mishandling the Bersih 2.0 rally for free and fair elections... and to rectify all these mistakes?” he added.

The BN coalition has been put on the defensive over the Bersih rally for the past week, with the international media from Singapore to the UK criticising the government’s handling ofpublic dissent.

Bersih estimates that 50,000 people showed up at its July 9 rally for free and fair elections despite efforts to prevent the assembly from taking place, while police have said there were only 6,000.

The protest turned chaotic when police fired tear gas and water cannons at thousands of demonstrators, resulting in nearly 1,700 arrests, scores injured and the death of ex-military man Baharuddin Ahmad, 59.

The government has promised to investigate allegations of police brutality while the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) will hold a separate public inquiry into police conduct during the rally.