BERSIH’s Agenda Derailed By Opposition 

KUALA LUMPUR, May 4- The civil society movement demanding electoral reforms through peaceful assembly by non-governmental organisations (NGO), which was actually in line with the government’s political transformation, is said to have been derailed by its own associates from opposition parties.

More and more evidence in the form of videos, pictures, witnesses and opposition leaders’ speeches uploaded on Youtube show the opposition hijacked last Saturday’s Bersih 3.0 assembly in the capital and was said to have intentionally sparked off chaos and violence.

In a video recording, Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) deputy president Azmin Ali apparently encouraged the demonstrators to remove the barbed wire and barriers at Dataran Merdeka and storm into the square, access to which was barred by a magistrate’s court restraining order.

A few days before the violent demonstration, Kelantan Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Nik Aziz Nik Mat had reportedly issued a “fatwa” that it was halal (kosher) to overthrow a ‘sinful’ government through street demonstrations.

The peaceful assembly, on the pretext of reforming the democratic process, which turned violent, showed up another irony in that the democratic movement itself failed to educate the people to respect and practise the main principle of the system – to uphold the law.

- Bernama