Retract your 'threat to Muslims' remark, Bersih tells Jasa director

Bersih today called for Special Affairs Department (Jasa) director Faisal Ismail Aziz to retract his remark that the electoral watchdog's campaign against 1MDB was a threat to Muslims in the country.

In a statement, Bersih chairperson Maria Chin Abdullah also urged the government propaganda arm to work instead with civil society groups and NGOs to recover assets purportedly stolen from 1MDB and rightfully return them to Malaysians.

"I am totally shocked at Faisal's comment that Bersih's campaigns related to 1MDB are examples of social media threats to the Muslim community. If one takes a closer look at our campaign on asset recovery, together with C4, it is clear that this endeavour is about good governance, accountability, transparency and distributive justice.

"He has confused the issues and made wild allegations on the good intentions of our initiative to recover assets stolen from 1MDB, as this campaign is clearly about efforts to return the money to the people of Malaysia and not about inciting hatred against the government, as Faisal has claimed," Maria (photo) said.

Faisal was quoted by The Malaysian Insight as saying, on the sidelines of the Khayr Ummah conference involving Asean and Saudi Arabian Muslim scholars yesterday, that Bersih's campaigns and allegations of fraud against 1MDB are prime examples of social media threats to the Muslim community.

Citing the group for spreading political hate, Faisal said the spread of such information led the people to hold demonstrations against the government.

Slides of his presentation reportedly contained images of Bersih's third mega rally in Kuala Lumpur in 2012, which called for electoral reform and an end to corruption, and also included pictures of a police car overturned by protesters.

Faisal had also then reportedly questioned the reaction of Malaysians to the United States Department of Justice's (DOJ) civil suits to recover funds allegedly misappropriated from 1MDB.

"The DOJ had just made an announcement, but in Malaysia, they already mounted a demonstration to 'Tangkap MO1' (Arrest Malaysian Official No 1). There's no logic (in that)," he was quoted saying.

This is in reference to a rally in Kuala Lumpur in August last year, calling for the prosecution of MO1, who the DOJ had listed as one the recipients of at least US$4 billion in funds allegedly misappropriated from 1MDB.

Last year, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Abdul Rahman Dahlan later confirmed MO1 was Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak. This was reported by The Star on Sept 1, 2016.

Najib has denied wrongdoing or taking public funds for personal gain.

'Don't engage in false news'

In the statement, Bersih further said that the attorney-general's decision not to prosecute the group for alleged charges of conducting activities detrimental to parliamentary democracy absolved them of any wrongdoing.

"Jasa should learn to keep up with the news and not engage in false news, as well as irresponsibly spew hatred against civil society organisations.

"It is such behaviour that is a threat to democracy, and those working to advance democracy in Malaysia," Maria said.

On Faisal's remark on baseless accusations about MO1's identity, Maria pointed out that it was ludicrous, in light of Rahman Dahlan's remark that Najib was MO1.

"Faisal should come out of the rabbit hole and realise that Malaysians are not mindlessly buying into his lies.

"Faisal must retract his statement. I encourage Jasa to work instead with NGOs to recover all stolen assets that rightfully belong to Malaysians, as this will illustrate that they have no malice and no intention to instigate fear-mongering among the races."

If indeed Bersih's allegations against 1MDB are unfounded, why then have action been taken against the state-owned fund in the foreign countries, including in Switzerland, Maria added.

"We want the confiscated illicit funds, which belongs to Malaysians, to be used for the people. We do not want it to be returned to the present government, which is seemingly complicit in suppressing attempts to raise questions related to the 1MDB scandal.

"We have proposed for an interim trust fund to be set up and this has yet to be discussed at a higher level, such as the by Swiss government," she added. -Mkini