REASON.....Ambiga
stressed that Malaysians don’t take to the street so easily unless it is for a
very good reason.
By :CLARA CHOOI
KUALA LUMPUR : The Bersih
2.0 movement does not want to cause an Arab Spring in Malaysia, Datuk Ambiga
Sreenavasan told CNN in a rare interview on international television aired here
this morning.
She stressed that the
election watchdog group she heads only wants a clean polls process to ensure a
democratically-elected government.
Ambiga told CNN’s Christiane
Amanpour during the New York interview that Bersih 2.0 is not opposed to the
possibility of the present government returning to power after the next polls,
provided that its leaders are elected fairly.
“Well, let me tell you where
we’re coming from. We don’t want an Arab Spring,” the activist said to the
renowned CNN chief international correspondent.
Ambiga was being interviewed
alongside another pro-reform fighter, Ukraine’s Eugenia Tymoshenko, the
daughter of the jailed former prime minister Julia Tymoshenko, on “Amanpour”,
the nightly foreign affairs programme on CNN International which Amanpour
anchors for.
Both were described by
Amanpour as “brave women” and “brave voices for democracy”.
“We want to choose our
leaders through clean and fair elections. We want to do it through the ballot
box, which is why the government really, if they want peaceful transition of
any sort — it can be the same government,” Ambiga said, according to a
transcript of the interview available on CNN.com.
Amanpour had asked Ambiga if
she felt that Malaysia would witness the same uprising seen over the past two
years in the Middle East, pointing to the string of pro-democracy protests that
the prominent lawyer has led since 2007.
To be honest, as far as our movement is
concerned, we’re not — we’re not worried about who wins. We’re worried about
the process.
“The process is important
because what it needs to reflect is the will of the people. It’s about
legitimacy. It’s about honouring the right of the voter to vote,” she said.
The Arab Spring or the Arab
revolution has seen rulers forced from power in several countries across the
Arab world including Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and Yemen, in a wave of
anti-government street demonstrations.
“It can be the same people
coming in,” insisted Ambiga, stressing again that Bersih 2.0 does not want a
Malaysian version of the Arab Spring.
“They have to allow it to
happen through clean and fair elections. That’s what we’re asking for. We want
to bring change through the ballot box, if there is to be change at all,” she
said.
Ambiga has so far led three
Bersih demonstrations in the capital city, amassing a crowd of thousands in a
march for free and fair elections.
The first rally in 2007 was
partly credited for the colossal losses suffered by the ruling Barisan Nasional
government during Elections 2008, where it failed to recapture its coveted
two-thirds parliamentary majority and even ceded four states and Kelantan to
the opposition.
But every Bersih protest had
resulted in scenes of chaos as the government deployed riot police to stop
protestors from marching on the streets of the capital through the use of tear
gas and chemical-laced water.
Since the protests, Ambiga
and her fellow Bersih 2.0 steering committee members have been the target of
attacks by pro-BN hardliners, some of whom have even held mini protests outside
the leader’s home and hurled threats and racial slurs at her.
But asked if she was afraid,
Ambiga told Amanpour that she had little choice in the matter.
“I mean, the choices are
this: you either give into the intimidation, which means you undermine the
whole movement, or you stand up to it.”
She pointed out that such
“oppressive conduct” by those in power was a clear indication that the
government saw the Bersih movement and the crowd of thousands it had amassed
for the rally as “a threat”.
Ambiga also made it a point
to correct Amanpour on the size of the crowd at the last Bersih rally in Kuala
Lumpur on April 28, saying some 200,000 had attended, instead of the 20,000
that the correspondent had earlier suggested.
“Malaysians don’t take to
the street easily. So if they have, there is a good reason for it.”
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