Rally in Malaysia to go on despite rejection by City Hall for permit | Asia News – Politics, Media, Education | Asian Correspondent

Rally in Malaysia to go on despite rejection by City Hall for permit | Asia News – Politics, Media, Education | Asian Correspondent
Yong Yen Nie, Apr 21, 2012 

The City Hall of Kuala Lumpur has rejected the request of a coalition of non-governmental organizations – known as BERSIH- to hold a sit-down protest to push for electoral reforms in a stadium in downtown Kuala Lumpur. But, BERSIH have said that the show would go on.

The BERSIH committee told the Malaysian Insider that the KL City Hall has rejected the NGOS’ application to hold a sit-down protest in the historic Independence Square, known as Dataran Merdeka, citing reasons that the venue is only for national events, such as National Day Parade and other events of similar nature.

However, BERSIH chairman Ambiga Sreenevasan said it is not surprised by the rejection letter and will proceed with the sit-in as “Dataran Merdeka belongs to the people.”
Ambiga said there were many events that had been held at the square that were not of national level, including concerts. “You can check that,” she was quoted as saying.

BERSIH had planned to organize a sit-down protest this April 28, following allegations of influx of phantom voters in various constituencies. NGOs on poll reformes also opined that the reforms recommended by the Parliamentary Select Committee were insufficient to clean up the electoral process in the country.

The Bar Council president Lim Chee Wee had said here that it is shocked that that the Election commission is still ‘studying’ the recommendations of the Parliamentary Select Committee for electoral reforms, which were a result of six months of careful consultation with stakeholders and the people.

“I am speechless that the EC is not able to start studying how to implement all the recommendations of the PSC which were arrived after six months of hard work, and instead, it is reported that it needs to study further what has already been studied,” he was quoted as saying.

The rally- a third since 2007- is organized by BERSIH with the anticipation that Malaysia’s 13th general elections could be called in May or June, given the preparation and submission of candidates’ names being prepared by political parties in recent weeks.

Its second rally was held in July 2011, whereby protestors had demanded for cleaner and fairer elections in the country including usage of indelible ink and longer duration for election campaign. The rally was clamped down by the government, which in turn faced a backlash from international communities and human rights groups.

This time, Home Minister Hishammuddin Tun Hussein said the sit-down protest is not a security threat and will not be the responsibility of the police to deal with it. “This won’t be a security issues. It is mainly political and we will deal with them the same way (politically). But if the protestors do more, don’t blame the police,” he was quoted as saying.