Wrong for Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to give the impression that only the BN government can monopolize the King and Malaysians who disagree with BN or seeks fair and clean elections have no access to the King
___________________
Press Statement
by Lim Guan Eng
________________________
(Petaling Jaya,
Monday):
The mass Coalition for Clean
and Fair Elections (Bersih)
gathering on 10.11.2007 is a
civil society movement with a
single agenda of seeking
clean and fair elections that
comprises NGOs and political
parties. No single
organization controls Bersih.
For BN to link Bersih to any
political party is untrue,
unfair and a desperate
attempt at diverting
attention that this call for
free and clean elections is
supported by the mass
majority of Malaysians as
demonstrated by the huge
turnout of more than 50,000
people on November 10. BN
appears to be shell-shocked
at such a huge turnout and
the failure of heavy police
presence and harsh tactics to
prevent the peaceful rally
from proceeding.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has
attempted to continue such
spin-doctoring by claiming
that this is an attempt by
the opposition to trap the
King and drag royalty into
opposition politics. Abdullah
is wrong for attempting to
give the impression that only
the BN government can
monopolize the King and that
Malaysians who either
disagree with BN or seeks
fair and clean elections have
no access to the King.
The King is above politics
and the symbol of our
parliamentary democracy that
protects and guarantees the
political and civil liberties
of Malaysians, as well as our
socio-economic rights
enshrined in our Federal
Constitution. Any citizen can
petition to the King and no
one group can “monopolize”
access to the King.
Unlike Abdullah, this mature
understanding of His
Majesty’s role in the Federal
Constitution and that
Bersih’s call for free and
clean elections is no
political gimmick as claimed
by BN are the reasons why the
King agreed to accept the
petition from civil society.
For this reason the Prime
Minister should not try to
drag the King into politics
by appearing to deny the
rakyat from even sending
petitions to the King.
DAP regrets Human Rights
Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam)
for defending the behavior of
police for making arrests and
reacting only when they were
challenged physically during
the protest. Human Rights
Commissioner Datuk N. Siva
Subramaniam has clearly got
his facts wrong when he said
the police only moved in when
the crowd got rowdy. No
Malaysian gathering
peacefully and unarmed would
be so stupid as to challenge
police armed with batons,
tear gas, water cannons and
even firearms.
Subramaniam has insulted his
own intelligence by pinning
the blame on peaceful
demonstrators and failed to
note that if they were indeed
violent towards the police,
police would not have
released the 245 arrested
immediately on the same day.
Some of the demonstrators
even came with their
children, and no parent is
stupid to put their safety of
their children in danger by
challenging the police.
Suhakam vice-chairman Tan Sri
Simon Sipaun had struck the
right note when he said that
he received complaints that
when Barisan Nasional holds a
demonstration, no action is
taken. It is such
double-standards and
transgressions of basic human
rights to freedom of
expression and assembly that
Suhakam must address instead
of defending the authorities’
action in curbing such
fundamental human liberties.
If that is the attitude of
Suhakam, then they should
stop the pretence about
promoting human rights but
concede that they are
actually trying to justify
why Malaysia does not deserve
fundamental human liberties.
(12/11/2007)
* Lim Guan
Eng,
Secretary-General of DAP |