DAP says the Home Minister should release all 73 hours of video
available to him if he truly wants the people to judge for themselves
what actually happened on April 28.
KUALA
LUMPUR: DAP today challenged Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein to
release, unedited, all 73 hours of video footage of the April 28 Bersih
rally that the police have in their possession.
Party strongman Lim Kit Siang issued the challenge in reaction to
reports that the Home Ministry would release an edited clip on its
website. Initial reports said the clip would be posted today, but
ministry sources subsequently said the upload has been postponed to a
date to be announced this afternoon.
The ministry is most likely to get its footage from the police. The
panel appointed by the government to investigate violence at the rally
disclosed on Monday that police were in possession of 43 video clips
with a total running time of 73 hours.
“If Hishammuddin is prepared to let the public draw their own
conclusions on what happened at the Bersih rally,” Lim told a press
conference here, “is he prepared to upload all the 73 hours of the video
clips?”
He accused the Home Minister of engaging in a “video war to support the
government’s conspiracy theory” and to vilify the rally, which he
described as a “great historic event”.
He said Hishammuddin’s “priority duty” as Home Minister “is not to be
accuser, judge, jury and executioner all in one” but to give his full
support to independent efforts to determine the truth of what happened
on April 28, such as the inquiry by Suhakam.
“He should rise above it all, unless he is not interested in the truth. Looks like he has made up his mind.”
Referring to the government-appointed investigative panel, which is
headed by former IGP Hanif Omar, Lim said it should be dissolved now
that two of its proposed members have withdrawn. The two are former
chief justice of Borneo Steve Shim Lip Kiong and Petronas corporate
affairs senior general manager Medan Abdullah.
He expressed a suspicion that the Hanif panel’s “real objective” was to “produce a finding to match the government’s script”.
Lim, who is the MP for Ipoh Timur, called upon Prime Minister Najib Tun
Razak to provide a progress report in Parliament on Monday on Bersih’s
eight demands, on the progress over the 22 recommendations made by the
parliamentary select committee for electoral reform and the additional
four recommendation made in the subsequent minority report.
DAP’s own video
DAP today released its own video of the April 28 events. The edited
video, which lasts for about 15 minutes, starts with scenes of
protesters in a festive mood, holding up banners, chanting “Bersih!” and
clearing rubbish from the streets. There is also a scene of Bersih
leader S Ambiga asking the crowd to disperse.
“Just as Ambiga asked the crowd to disperse, the ruling government
started acting violent,” says the voiceover above clips of police firing
tear gas and water cannon into the crowd.
The video also juxtaposes statements by Najib and Hishammuddin against
happenings on the ground that appear to contradict them. For example, a
scene of Hishammuddin speaking in praise of police professionalism is
followed by scenes of policemen beating up protestors and journalists.
The DAP video did not show images of protesters breaching the barricade around Dataran Merdeka.
Asked why this was so, DAP publicity chief Tony Pua said the that incident was subject to debate.
“We don’t know what happened,” he said. Referring to clips available on
pro-BN websites, he said: “You have clips of Anwar Ibrahim and Azmin Ali
instructing the crowd to breach the barrier, but anyone looking at the
video can only see both using sign language. Even so, it does not
justify the police using any form of violence against protesters who
didn’t breach the barrier.”
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