Indian NGOs back Bersih

The Malaysian Indian Voice says that the time has come for the community to teach BN a 'bitter lesson'.

KUALA LUMPUR: Two NGOs, The Malaysian Indian Voice (MIV) an WargaAman, have pledged their support for the Bersih 3.0 rally slated for April 28 at Dataran Merdeka.

MIV, which would be organising the Indian Rights Action Force (Indraf) 2.0 rally next month, said that it backed Bersih because equality and justice could only exist in a clean and transparent democratic system.

Speaking at a press conference here, MIV president and former Internal Security Act detainee V Ganabitarau urged all Indians in Malaysia to lend their support for Bersih’s cause.

“As a community which has been discriminated and marginalised for more than 50 years, we only have one choice… to teach Barisan Nasional a bitter lesson,” he said.

Also present at the press conference were National Indian Action Team (NIAT) chairman Thasleem Mohd Ibrahim and MIV leaders V Raidu, A Prakash and David Bala.

Ganabatirao said the Election Commission was not independent and BN had been manipulating the commission in its favour.

“Hence, this rally is important to ensure a free and fair election,” he added.

Meanwhile, WargaAman, a coalition of 20 Indian NGOs, was backing Bersih to keep the pressure on the government to reform the electoral process.

In a statement, the coalition’s sceretary-general S Barathidasan said the EC had not addressed issues related to postal votes, election offences and measures to end dirty politics.