The Bersih chief told The Malaysian Insider today that the group seeking electoral reforms will not back down and will never discount cooperation with the authorities ahead of the planned gathering, which will also see counter-rallies from Umno Youth and Perkasa in the capital next weekend.
“I am ever ready to discuss with the police. He did not say what was on the agenda but I will strongly protest the arrests so far,” she said of her meeting with Tan Sri Ismail Omar.
Although the former Bar Council president said she would try to convince the police chief that the event could be managed safely, she admitted that she was not confident of successful negotiations given what Bersih supporters and opposition leaders have called a politically motivated crackdown.
“Given what has happened today (the raid of Bersih’s office), I don’t know if we can reach an agreement but we will not stop trying,” she added.
The government has insisted that all gatherings planned for July 9 will be deemed unlawful but the mercury continues to rise a mere 10 days before Bersih’s rally calling for free and fair elections.
Both Ambiga and Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin have received death threats with up to 600 Umno Youth members surrounding the PKR headquarters on Monday night, claiming that the opposition party was the source of the threat against its leader.
PKR has denied this allegation and have countered with a claim that Umno Youth had threatened to burn down their office which the youth wing has also denied.
On Sunday, the authorities arrested 30 activists from the Socialists Party of Malaysia including Sungai Siput MP Michael Jayakumar, on suspicion of “waging war on the King,” and purported communist activities after the discovery of T-shirts bearing images of former Communist Party leaders Chin Peng and Rashid Maidin in their possession.
About 20 policemen, at least one of whom was armed with an assault rifle, raided the Bersih secretariat in Petaling Jaya today, confiscating hundreds of the movement’s iconic yellow T-shirts and bringing seven in for questioning.
But despite the apparent lockdown on Bersih, supporters of the electoral reform group have taken the fight online in an operation codenamed “Ops Kuning”.
The movement aims to reach 50,000 supporters on its official Facebook page and 10,000 followers on Twitter.
At the time of reporting, among the trending words on Twitter in the country were “Yellow” and “KOTOR” respectively. Both tag words are linked to the Bersih topic as well. Activists are now tweeting with the hashtag #Bersih.
The first Bersih rally in 2007 saw up to 50,000 people take to the streets of Kuala Lumpur before they were dispersed by police armed with tear gas and water cannons.
The demonstration has been partly credited for PR’s record gains in Election 2008, where the opposition pact swept to power in five states and won 82 parliamentary seats.
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