Utusan says Bersih dirty, calls for boycott

By Shannon Teoh
The Malaysian Insider
Jun 12, 2011

KUALA LUMPUR, June 12 — Umno-owned Utusan Malaysia has called on Malaysians not just to boycott next month’s Bersih rally, but also to gather against the movement that calls for free and fair elections.

The paper’s Mingguan Malaysia weekend edition also told Malaysians “who love peace and reject hypocrisy” to gather on the streets of Kuala Lumpur on July 9 “with banners of the opposition leader’s scandals” in reference to sodomy and sex video allegations against Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

“Display also newspaper cuttings of the sodomy victims. They are the ones that should be defended if we support a clean culture. Awang believes the gathering will be a senjata makan tuan (backfiring weapon) for the opposition.

“This gathering is dirty,” it said in its Awang Selamat — the nom de plume of the newspaper’s editors — column today.

Pakatan Rakyat (PR) parties and activists are gearing up to march next month in the second such rally by Bersih, the first being in 2007 where up to 50,000 were reported to have gathered in the capital, with many being dispersed by water cannons and tear gas launched by the police.

PAS has promised to bring 300,000 protestors this year in hopes that it will galvanise support for the opposition in a general election expected within the year.

The 2007 rally was said to play a big role in bringing record gains for the opposition electoral pact in Election 2008, where it swept five state governments and won 82 parliamentary seats.

In today’s edition, Mingguan Malaysia, where it front-paged calls to “prevent the Bersih rally,” also said that the protest was organised by anti-Islamic NGOs and the opposition would use the protest to “incite tension to profit politically. With the opposition’s failing image, it needs Bersih to revive itself.”

“The gathering is masterminded by NGOs who are anti-Islam in their thinking and actions. PAS’s involvement is only as pak turut (yes-men) as the pro-Anwar faction now controls the party.

“Meanwhile, DAP leaders like Lim Kit Siang will be smiling because most of those joining Bersih will be Malays. That is how shallow Malay politics is, those that benefit are other races,” it wrote.

On its front page, the newspaper also ran a warning by Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein that “it will be chaotic when those for and against the street demonstration clash.”

It quoted Perkasa president Datuk Ibrahim Ali, who warned that there is a possibility the Malay rights NGO would “also hold a gathering on that day and I am ready for any eventuality.”

The Malay daily also ran reports saying some 21,000 taxi drivers will lose RM3.2 million on that day and that 13 police reports have already been lodged against the Bersih rally.