How 'bersih' is Bersih? - Zahid teases group at recent meet

 

For many years - when BN ruled alone - Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s relationship with Bersih had been tense at best, if not hostile.

But a recent meeting between the two had a very different tone than what most would recall in the past.

Bersih chairperson Muhammad Faisal Abdul Aziz said the group caught up with the deputy prime minister at Parliament earlier this month to present their reform demands.

“There was a naughty reaction, Zahid asked ‘how bersih (clean) is Bersih’, so I answered, ‘100 percent Bersih’,” he told Malaysiakini in an exclusive interview.

Faisal said the meeting was brief, and during which Zahid read Bersih’s 10 reforms proposal.

Bersih chairperson Muhammad Faisal Abdul Aziz

“He agreed to it on principle because it’s quite clear,” Faisal recalled.

One of the reforms demanded by Bersih was for the office of attorney-general to be split from the public prosecutor.

Faisal said that BN’s election manifesto also pledged to do this, which is why Zahid agreed to it.

Ironically, one of the other reforms being demanded by Bersih was for a moratorium on discharges not amounting to acquittal (DNAA), which was inspired by Zahid controversially being granted a DNAA in his Yayasan Akalbudi corruption trial.

However, Faisal said the matter was not broached during their brief meeting on March 7.

Others Bersih had met on that day include ministers Mohamad Sabu, Fadhlina Sidek, and Dr Zaliha Mustafa, as well as nine deputy ministers and MPs from both the government and opposition.

Faisal said this was meant to serve as a quick follow-up to Bersih’s meeting with Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim on Feb 28.

Besides separating the attorney-general’s office and a moratorium on DNAAs, Bersih’s other demands include reforms on political financing, redelineation, Parliamentary Service Act and Standing Orders, and a Constituency Development Fund Act.

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-Mkini