“How can the police reject it when Bersih have yet to submit an application?”How stupid Malaysian police

The police have denied ever alluding to Bersih 2.0 that their application for police permit will be approved.

Dang Wangi district police chief Zulkarnain Abdul Rahman said that the police officer who called Bersih 2.0 did not miscommunicate with them about their application.

"No, there is no miscommunication on our part," he told a press conference at the district police headquarters in Kuala Lumpur this evening.

Bersih 2.0 had earlier announced that their police permit has been approved to assemble at Stadium Merdeka.

However, they later retracted their statement saying the police had misinformed them.

"They were only contacted to come here to collect a letter saying that their application is not approved," said Zulkarnain.

He added that Bersih 2.0 made the application for a police permit this morning, which was denied by the movement's steering committee member Maria Chin Abdullah.

Jumping the gun?

Earlier, Bersih 2.0 had sent out this message on Facebook and Twitter:

"GREAT NEWS! Dang Wangi police station called Bersih, asked them to pick up permit for rally in Stadium MERDEKA! Now falls to PM & Stadium Management to make appropriate arrangements."

However, half-an-hour later, a correction was posted:

"Sorry all, spoke too soon: Bersih rep asked three times 'Is this a permit?' Police: 'Yes', but now, police say 'Actually it is a letter denying permission'."

Immediately after the first tweet message was transmitted, Kuala Lumpur deputy police chief Amar Singh denied that a permit had been issued.

"As far as I know, no permits have been issued for July 9," he told Malaysiakini.

Pressed on the matter, he conceded that the first person to know would be the Dang Wangi district police chief Zulkarnain Abdul Rahman, but that a police permit was still unlikely.

"The best person to ask is Zulkarnain. But I just got off the phone with him. He didn't mention anything about approving the permit," Amar said.

Bersih: We've yet to submit permit application

Meanwhile, Chin told reporters that she had gone to Dang Wangi district police headquarters to receive a letter informing the group that the permit had been denied.

She insisted that the police had earlier told the group that a permit was issued.

However, Chin said that Bersih 2.0 had yet to file its permit application.

“How can the police reject it when we have yet to submit an application?”

She later proceeded to Pudu police station to hand over an official application for a permit to hold the rally.