This, Lembah Pantai MP Nurul Izzah Anwar said, would cause the authorities to ultimately put the blame on Bersih if street demonstrations were to go awry.
“There’ll be agent provocateurs on that day, bent to create havoc and they will use it to blame Bersih,” she told reporters in Parliament today.
Nurul, also the PKR vice-president, said that this appeared to be the government’s modus operandi, especially with the arrests of PSM activists and their being tied to communism by the authorities.
“The plan or the seeds of this malicious plan can be seen through the arrests and the communist bogeyman put forth,” she said.
On Sunday, 31 PSM activists, including Sungai Siput MP Michael Jeyakumar Devaraj, were arrested for possessing T-shirts with communist leaders’ faces on them.
Although one was set free, the other 30 are still held in remand in accordance with Section 122 of the Penal Code for waging war against the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong.
Speaking on this, Nurul said that the police appeared to treat pro-BN protesters favourably over all other groups.
She brought in last night’s Umno Youth demonstration in front of PKR’s Merchant Square headquarters as an example.
According to media reports, hundreds of Umno Youth members gathered there in response to a death threat received by the wing’s leader Khairy Jamaluddin.
Assembling close to midnight, the 600-strong crowd threatened to burn down the PKR office.
Though a police station was only a few doors down from PKR’s HQ, it was claimed that officers did not stop the crowd from making their threats.
“(It’s) quite clear from past demonstrations held. You’ll always see a huge difference between way the police treats pro-Umno supporters,” Nurul said.
On the other hand, she said that Bersih organisers and Pakatan Rakyat politicians were hounded by the police.
“It is so efficient to give notice to PKR and Bersih organisers (to appear before the police),” she said.
Umno Youth uncivilised
“If people don’t agree with PKR, they have the right to gather, hand over a memorandum and protest in front of PKR (HQ).”
“What we don’t agree with is the way Umno Youth threatened to burn down the PKR office, in a violent manner and an uncivilised manner,” he said.
Expecting Khairy to answer on behalf of last night’s protests, Tian Chua hoped that Umno Youth would behave themselves when they gather on the streets on July 9. Umno Youth and rightwing Malay group Perkasa will also be holding their own rallies to oppose the Bersih gathering on July 9.
In a related matter, the police appeared in Parliament today to record statements from Pakatan lawmakers.
PAS-Jerai MP Mohd Firdaus Jaafar and PKR-Gombak MP Azmin Ali were both questioned at the MP’s lounge at 10.30am and 11.30am respectively.
PKR deputy president Azmin later told reporters that the police were investigating him based on a public speech he made two weeks ago.
At the time, he “allegedly invited” the public to join the Bersih rally. Although agreeing to having his statement recorded, Azmin said that he did not answer of the questions presented to him.
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