The City Hall of Kuala Lumpur has rejected
the request of a coalition of non-governmental organizations – known as BERSIH-
to hold a sit-down protest to push for electoral reforms in a stadium in
downtown Kuala Lumpur. But, BERSIH have said that the show would go on.
The
BERSIH committee told the Malaysian Insider that the KL City Hall has rejected
the NGOS’ application to hold a sit-down protest in the historic Independence
Square, known as Dataran Merdeka, citing reasons that the venue is only for
national events, such as National Day Parade and other events of similar
nature.
However,
BERSIH chairman Ambiga Sreenevasan said it is not surprised by the rejection
letter and will proceed with the sit-in as “Dataran Merdeka belongs to the
people.”
Ambiga
said there were many events that had been held at the square that were not of
national level, including concerts. “You can check that,” she was quoted as
saying.
BERSIH
had planned to organize a sit-down protest this April 28, following allegations
of influx of phantom voters in various constituencies. NGOs on poll reformes
also opined that the reforms recommended by the Parliamentary Select Committee
were insufficient to clean up the electoral process in the country.
The Bar
Council president Lim Chee Wee had said here that it is shocked that that the
Election commission is still ‘studying’ the recommendations of the
Parliamentary Select Committee for electoral reforms, which were a result of
six months of careful consultation with stakeholders and the people.
“I am
speechless that the EC is not able to start studying how to implement all the
recommendations of the PSC which were arrived after six months of hard work,
and instead, it is reported that it needs to study further what has already
been studied,” he was quoted as saying.
The
rally- a third since 2007- is organized by BERSIH with the anticipation that
Malaysia’s 13th general elections could be called in May or June, given the
preparation and submission of candidates’ names being prepared by political
parties in recent weeks.
Its
second rally was held in July 2011, whereby protestors had demanded for cleaner
and fairer elections in the country including usage of indelible ink and longer
duration for election campaign. The rally was clamped down by the government,
which in turn faced a backlash from international communities and human rights
groups.
This
time, Home Minister Hishammuddin Tun Hussein said the sit-down protest is not a
security threat and will not be the responsibility of the police to deal with
it. “This won’t be a security issues. It is mainly political and we will deal
with them the same way (politically). But if the protestors do more, don’t
blame the police,” he was quoted as saying.
Yong
Yen Nie
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