Mayor dodges Dataran question, citing 'laws'

Kuala Lumpur Mayor Ahmad Fuad Ismail HAS defended his decision not to allow the Bersih 3.0 rally to take place at Dataran Merdeka, reiterating that his actions were backed by law and that alternative venues had been offered to the organiser.
 
“So I have the law to back me. You must understand, otherwise the whole thing would be very disrupted if people can’t follow the law. Why don’t you (Bersih organisers) want to follow the law?
 
“I have already given them the alternative... you can actually go there and sit inside,” he told a press conference at the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) headquarters today.
 
Fuad was responding to questions from reporters whether DBKL should have allowed the rally on April 28 to take place and avoid the violence that occurred.
 
Without responding directly to the question, he said: “I have with me the law; I have with me alternatives.”

He was referring to the Dataran Merdeka By-laws and the Peaceful Assembly Act, as well as to several stadiums around Kuala Lumpur that were offered as alternative venues for the rally.
 
DBKL, he said, had suffered losses amounting to RM300,000 during the rally on April 28, covering damage to the landscaping, the cost of hiring additional human resources and removal of eight tonnes of garbage off the streets.
 
“They say it’s Bersih. Actually it’s not bersih (clean), it’s kotor (dirty). The roads were all dirty,” Ahmad Fuad quipped.
 
Asked whether DBKL would take legal action against Bersih, the coalition for clean and fair elections which had organised the rally, he said this remains to be seen.

However, DBKL has lodged a police report on the losses suffered, he added.