Najib: Violence caused by Bersih’s rejection of stadium offer

PUTRAJAYA, May 3 — Datuk Seri Najib Razak appeared today to blame Bersih 3.0 organisers for last Saturday's violence, saying if the group had accepted the government's Stadium Merdeka offer, "these things would not have happened at all".

The prime minister said the gathering for free and fair elections would have been peaceful if it had been held at the stadium as the authorities would have facilitated the event.

"The root of the problem, the real root cause of all these (incidents), if you like, was when they rejected the offer to have it at Stadium Merdeka," he told a press conference after meeting with GLC (government-linked companies) representatives here today.

"If only the organisers had listened to us. These things would not have happened at all, nobody would have been injured," he added.

Najib pointed out that such violence and injuries were common in most street protests, whether in Malaysia or abroad, and this, he stressed, was the key reason why the government had wanted to avoid such clashes.

He cited protests in modern societies like the United States and United Kingdom as examples, adding it was difficult to avoid altercations among protesters.

This, he explained, was also the main reason why his administration had enacted the Peaceful Assembly Act 2011, which was mooted last year to better regulate public gatherings after the fracas of Bersih's last rally in July last year.

"Okay... there might be some allegations... but that's why we wanted to avoid street demonstrations.

"You see, if they had chosen Stadium Merdeka, which was their request before (last year), it would have been a very peaceful gathering - we would have facilitated them, nothing of this sort would have happened.

"We've always said, we've always maintained that if you have street demonstrations, you cannot control street demonstrations and this is what happened," he said.

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