By Boo Su-Lyn
July 16, 2011 | The Malaysian Insider

KUALA LUMPUR, July 16 — The government’s threat to freeze the assets of those involved with Bersih 2.0 will destroy Malaysia’s financial reputation as bad press abounds on the Najib administration’s handling of last weekend’s rally, the DAP said today.

Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Awang Adek Hussin said yesterday that Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) can freeze the assets of those believed to be participating in activities deemed risky to the nation’s security.

“Such actions are detrimental to Malaysia’s efforts to establish itself as a safe haven for capital and investments,” DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said in his keynote speech at the party’s national leadership retreat in Seremban today.

“If assets can be frozen just for participating in a peaceful assembly or for receiving funds from non-profit foreign NGOs, then many innocent Malaysians and organisations will be unfairly victimised,” added the Penang chief minister.

The Umno-owned Utusan Malaysia reported on July 3 that Bersih 2.0 chairman Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan received funds from foreign non-profit organisations through a local bank, saying the bank was chosen to help the former Bar Council president in her plan to “cause chaos in Malaysia”.

It also claimed that an opposition leader owns shares in the bank.

Bersih was also hit by allegations of having received funding from, among others, foreign Christian organisations to finance its July 9 rally for electoral reforms.

But the movement countered the accusations by saying the donations for the rally came from Malaysian citizens here and abroad. It also clarified that money the group received from two US organisations — the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and Open Society Institute (OSI) — were for other projects unrelated to the July 9 march.

Lim said freezing Bersih’s assets would be a “gross abuse” of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act, which allows the central bank to not only bar access to such funds but also trace both deposits and withdrawals of the offending accounts.

“Would others involved in ‘illegal assemblies’ like Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin have their assets frozen?” he asked.

The Bagan MP also pointed out that no action was taken against those suspected of illegally siphoning RM888 billion out of Malaysia from 2000 to 2008.

He stressed that the Najib administration only had itself to blame for the international media’s attack on its “harsh” crackdown on the Bersih demonstration last week.

“So ridiculous was the crackdown that wearing yellow was sufficient cause for arrest.

“The documented beatings and recorded brutal treatment on video tape was completely unprovoked and put Malaysia on the same international platform as the repressive Arab regimes in the Middle East,” said Lim.