FOCUS ON REAL CRIMINALS, NOT BERSIH

PROVEN....Lim in a statement yesterday said the court ruling has proven that Bersih is a legal movement and that the Malaysians who participated in Bersih rallies in 2011 and 2012 were actually law-abiding citizens and not criminals.

KUALA LUMPUR : DAP Secretary General Lim Guan Eng said today that Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein should focus on fighting real criminals instead of wasting energy and resources on political vendettas, chasing Islamist or communist shadows, and harassing movements such as Bersih and innocent civilians who participated in the rallies.

Lim also said that DAP lauded the High Court decision yesterday to quash the declaration by Hishammuddin that the Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (Bersih) is an unlawful society.

“Now that the court has ruled Hishammuddin’s actions as “tainted” and “irrational”, he should immediately apologise for unilaterally declaring Bersih illegal and allow it to be registered as a lawful society,” he said in a statement.

According to Lim, the court ruling had basically proven that Bersih is a legal movement and that the hundreds and thousands of Malaysians who participated in the Bersih 2.0 rally on July 9, 2011 and Bersih 3.0 on April 28, 2012 were actually law-abiding citizens and not criminals.

“Unfortunately, because of Hishammuddin’s irrational decree, the police had treated them as if they were criminals,” said the DAP Secretary General.

He also said that many rally-goers, as well as neutral observers like media workers and reporters, had been subject to indiscriminate police action including incidents of assault and the confiscation of equipment during the Bersih 3.0 rally earlier this year.

“Previously in Bersih 2.0, hundreds of people were arrested leading up to the rally, including six PSM members who were detained without trial under the now-defunct Emergency Ordinance,” said Lim.

Yesterday, High Court Judge Datuk Rohana Yusuf ruled that “the decision to outlaw Bersih impinges on the right guaranteed under the Federal Constitution and should not be taken in a just and lackadaisical manner.”

Rohana also said in her ruling that Hishammuddin’s declaration on July 1, 2011 was “tainted with irrationality and it was made without taking into account the relevant facts.”

Subsequently, there have been calls from netizens as well as politicians supporting the movement for free and fair elections for the home minister to apologise.