PAS wants duo on trial, info cascade by rally goers
Harakahdaily
KUALA LUMPUR, Jul 11: PAS has condemned the brutality which accompanied the crackdown on Bersih protesters last Saturday, and urge Inspector General of Police Ismail Omar and his deputy Khalid Abu Bakar (pics right) to resign and face a tribunal.
“With so many images and video clips shown, the devious statement from the IGP and his deputy alleging that the police were assaulted and provoked forcing them to act only serves to expose their own lies.
"PAS strongly condemns the police’s barbaric actions which also caused the death of Baharudin Ahmad and injured dozens of people. Hundreds had been kicked, beaten and dragged into trucks, showing a very disgusting side of the security personnel,” said PAS information chief Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man in a statement today.
The massive rally which attracted some 50,000 people at several locations in the city centre was attacked by thousands of police who released tear gas, with hundreds of video clips making their way online showing police brutality on peaceful protesters.
Hours after the protest, a visibly shocked Ismail quickly downplayed the rally, claiming only 5,000 to 6,000 people had attended. Based on such a claim, it would mean, albeit incredulously, that for any group of four people, one was arrested.
Information cascading
Tuan Ibrahim, who was among the thousands at the rally, stressed that Bersih participants were peaceful unlike the government propaganda in the run up to the July 9 rally.
The Pahang PAS commissioner urged said those who attended the rally should spread information about the rally and share their experience to friends and families to counter UMNO's divide and rule tactic.
“If each of the 50,000 people spreads their experience of (joining) Bersih to ten persons, we will have 500,000 who will know and feel. This 500,000, if each of them share to five, then 2.5 million Malaysians who couldn’t be with us on that day can be part of the feeling of being a united Malaysia.
"We will then realise that the attempt to portray that Malaysians were divided is just a ploy of UMN and Barisan Nasional to stay in power,” explained Tuan Ibrahim.
Tuan Ibrahim was however quick to remind his earlier caution to Pakatan Rakyat parties not to take for granted the massive turnout in support of Bersih.
“The people support Bersih 2.0 solely to make sure their votes are not offset illegally by phantom voters or unverified postal votes, as well as to ensure they are allowed to make an informed decision," he stressed.
“The people who supported Bersih 2.0 will not vote for us if we perform poorly and failed to instil confidence in our ability to govern," he warned.
On the death of Baharudin Ahmad, he offered the Islamic party's condolences to the family.
“We hope that this tragedy will further ignite the rise of the people to change this tyranical government,” he added. - en.harakahdaily.net
