By Yow Hong Chieh The Malaysian Insider Jun 20, 2011
KUALA LUMPUR, June 20 — Clean and fair elections will not only benefit all political parties including those under the Barisan Nasional (BN) umbrella, Bersih chairman Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan said last night.
She said electoral reform will “legitimise” BN’s rule in the eyes of the people and lend credibility to ruling coalition, which the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) opposition pact has repeatedly accused of electoral fraud.
“We want clean and fair elections for everyone and this is good even for Barisan Nasional, because if they come in on free and fair elections, they’re legitimately there,” she told nearly 600 supporters at the launch of the Bersih 2.0 rally here.
Ambiga said the door was still open to BN component parties who wished to join Bersih on July 9 to demand electoral reform, stressing that she wanted the rally to be a bipartisan affair.
She lamented that, while the coalition sent invitations to all political parties, only the opposition had agreed to join the rally.
Ambiga also reiterated that Bersih wants to work hand-in-hand with police to help the people exercise their right to assembly, as guaranteed by Article 10 of the Federal Constitution.
“They (the police) will tell you that we have legislation, Police Act and the rest. That’s what they will say, and they will use that.
“But I tell them: Read the Constitution. Whatever Act you have cannot nullify my right under this Federal Constitution. You may restrict it a little bit but you cannot take it away,” the former Bar Council president said.
PR component parties and activists are gearing up to march on July 9 in the second such rally by election watchdog Bersih.
The first rally in 2007 saw up to 50,000 people take to the capital’s street, before they were dispersed by police armed with tear gas and water cannons.
The 2007 rally has been credited for the PR’s record gains in Election 2008, where the opposition pact was swept to power in five states and won 82 parliamentary seats.
PAS has promised to bring some 300,000 protestors this year in hopes that it will galvanise support for the opposition in the next general election, expected to be called within a year.
Malay rights group Perkasa and 164 other non-governmental organisations as well as Umno Youth have said they will march on July 9 to counter the Bersih rally.
Perkasa earlier yesterday kicked off its counter-protest to Bersih 2.0 by burning images of Ambiga and warning the Chinese to stay indoors as “anything could happen”.