KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 26 ― The Bersih 4 rally is the people’s way of celebrating Merdeka by calling for reforms, Bersih 2.0 chair Maria Chin Abdullah said today.
Chin said the rally scheduled for this weekend at the city centre will go on despite the authorities prohibiting it, insisting that the overnight demonstration will not interrupt Independence Day celebrations at Dataran Merdeka as it would only take place in areas surrounding the historic square.
“We will not disturb it because we still respect Merdeka Day, but they have to also recognise that Bersih 4 is part and parcel of National Day, and it is the people's way of celebrating it in calling for change and reform at a national level,” Chin told reporters after her meeting with the police at the Dang Wangi district police headquarters here.
She said that Bersih 2.0 was “not being difficult” but that the polls reform group was as patriotic as anyone else in wanting to see change in the country.
“We came up with all these demands for the good of the country and not being difficult...we are as patriotic as anyone here. We want to see change, accountability, integrity and transparency,” she added.
The overnight Bersih 4 rally that will be held at the city centre, Kota Kinabalu in Sabah, Kuching in Sarawak, and other cities around the world, aims to press for institutional reforms and for Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s resignation over his handling of the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) controversy.
The police told Bersih 2.0 earlier today to obtain permission to hold their Bersih 4 rally at Dataran Merdeka, warning them that demonstrators will face action otherwise in the rally the force dubbed as illegal.
Dang Wangi police chief Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Zainol Sama said that the Bersih 4 rally was illegal “right from the start”, claiming that the organisers were however persistent and adamant on having the assembly at the historic square.
Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government minister Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan also took to Twitter today, blasting out several tweets calling for the assembly to be postponed and claiming that the demonstration will affect Malaysia’s already bad economy and may even cause the ringgit to slide.
Chin said in response that Bersih's demands for better policies and governance would only serve to bolster the economy.
“I think that if we were to bring in institutional reforms, it will correct the economy and that's what we want for the future of the country. We are not here to destroy the economy, we are here to tell the administration that these are the proposals we have and and we can't implement it on our own...so if they can do it, the economy will bounce back,” she told reporters.
The five demands of the Bersih 4 rally are clean elections; clean government; right to dissent; strengthening parliamentary democracy and saving the economy.
