By Clara Chooi | June 23, 2011
The Malaysian Insider

KUALA LUMPUR, June 23 — Pakatan Rakyat (PR) leaders expressed determination today to press on with their participation in the upcoming Bersih rally despite the SMS death threat to Datuk Ambiga Sreenavasan.

PR de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, after chairing the pact’s presidential council meeting at the Parliament building here this afternoon, described the threat as “deplorable”, saying that this should further inspire Malaysians to take a stand.

“We are clearly disgusted. But what is worse, it is not only about the purveyors but the fact that this system seeks to condone, allow and publicise this.

“So, all the more reason why members of the public must take a position — enough of this racist rhetoric and nonsense… we have to speak up,” Anwar (picture) told a press conference.

DAP advisor Lim Kit Siang agreed, adding that the threat should be “condemned in the strongest possible terms.”

The Ipoh Timor MP urged the authorities to take immediate action on the matter, pointing out that the threat had come at a time when the prime minister himself had called for moderation.

“But yet, we see in the country this vile extremism rearing its ugly head… these incidences were unheard of in the past… this open threat of assassination is now developing as the latest form of extremism,” he said.

Lim added that if the government had taken the matter seriously in the past, Malaysia would not be witnessing such extremism or racism today.

“If they had taken proper steps to ensure that moderates can have their rightful place in the country and clamp down on such extremism, Malaysia would not be in the sorry state that it is in today,” he said.

Lim then called on the prime minister to prove that his 1 Malaysia policy was not merely rhetoric by facilitating the planned Bersih rally this July 9.

“Instead of the home minister, police, together with other political leaders making baseless threats,” he said.

Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein told reporters yesterday that the organisers of the three planned rallies for July 9 — Bersih 2.0, Umno Youth and Perkasa — would be hauled in to the Bukit Aman police headquarters.

This morning, Ambiga, several reporters and Bersih members received an SMS death threat, saying their lives would be in jeopardy if the rally proceeds.

The message written in Malay read:

“Korg ni buta hati ke?? buat apa sokong ambiga keling paria haramjadah tu? dia ni kapir laknat. korang tau tak dia ni jadi alat anjing2 politik untuk musnahkan keutuhan melayu. dia kata je nak BERSIH kan SPR. bersih kepala bapak dia. puak2 PAS n PKR pun buta tuli n pekak badak.. kalau SPR tak bersih, boleh ke diorang menang kat Sgor, Kedah, Penang, Kelantan n perak dulu? DAP cina sial tu pulak lagi haram jahanam. dia tengok je melayu bertekak. hujung2 dia perintah negara ni dan kristiankan kita semua. aku nak kasi amaran kat korang semua. kalau perhimpunan ni jadi, aku dan org2 aku akan bunuh ambiga dan korang2 keliling dia satu persatu, termasuklah orang2 politik bangang yang bersekongkol ngan kafir laknat tu.. ini amaran aku. Korang tengok nanti.”

(Are you people blind? Why would you support that pariah keling Ambiga? She is an infidel. Don’t you know that she is a tool of those political dogs who are out to destroy the strength of the Malays. She is just saying she wants to clean up the EC, she should clean up her father’s head. And the PAS, PKR leaders, they are deaf, dumb, blind and illiterate. If the EC is not clean then how did they win Selangor, Kedah, Penang, Kelantan and Perak? The damned Chinese DAP is even more despicable. They just watch the Malays go at each other’s throats. In the end, they will rule the country and turn all of us into Christians. I would like to warn all of you. If the rally proceeds, I and my people will kill Ambiga and all of you around her one by one, including the politicians cooperating with that infidel. That is my warning… you watch out.)

The first Bersih rally in 2007 saw up to 50,000 people take to the capital’s streets before they were dispersed by police armed with tear gas and water cannons.