Malaysia: Bersih Rally Leaders Say They Received Threats

Tensions are building ahead of a rally being planned for Nov. 19 in Kuala Lumpur by Bersih, a coalition of Malaysian NGOs advocating clean government.

Organizers of the Bersih 5.0 rally said they received death threats, and an official from the ruling party was arrested Wednesday for threatening to incite race riots in multi-ethnic Malaysia if they went ahead with the street demonstration.

Jamal Md Yunos, a division chief for the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) and leader of its Red Shirt activist group, was picked up at Kuala Lumpur International Airport as he returned home from a trip to Dubai, according to media reports.

Zainol Samah, the police chief in Dang Wangi district, confirmed Jamal’s arrest but declined to elaborate, the state-run Bernama news agency reported.

In a phone interview following his arrest, Jamal told BenarNews he was remanded for two days of custody and was being investigated for alleged defamation, criminal intimidation and sedition.

He said he was arrested as part of an investigation into alleged slander for posting a comment on Facebook on Sept. 21 “where I reminded the nation of the re-occurrence of the May 13, 1969, racial riots, if Bersih carries on [with] their Nov. 19 rally.”

He was referring to the bloody May 13, 1969, incident when about 200 people were said to have been killed in clashes in and around Kuala Lumpur, after opposition parties supported by the ethnic Chinese community made inroads in a general election.

Malaysians of all races have attended massive annual Bersih rallies, but protesters from the ethnic Chinese minority predominate.

Since Sept. 14, when they announced their plans for Bersih 5.0, organizers have gone on the road to rally support around the big demonstration in mid-November but allegedly have been harassed by Red Shirt activists, local reports said.

Jamal told Benar that the goal of the Bersih road show was to persuade more people from the Malay ethnic majority – which dominates the ranks of UMNO – to participate in the upcoming rally.

Bersih, which means “clean,” is a movement founded in 2006 that advocates clean government, transparency and fair elections, and it has spearheaded several massive street demonstrations in Malaysia.

At Bersih 4.0 in July 2014, demonstrators called for Prime Minister Najib Razak to resign over corruption allegations linked with state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) – accusations which he has denied.

Infiltrated by IS?

Last week, Jamal stirred up controversy by publicly suggesting that Bersih’s ranks were infiltrated by members of the extremist group Islamic State (IS).

On Tuesday, Bersih chairwoman Maria China Abdullah said she and two colleagues had received death threats accompanied by doctored images of the three kneeling before an IS executioner with knife in hand.

The perpetrators “also sent images of my three sons’ identification cards,” she told a press conference at the Petaling Jaya district police headquarters late Tuesday.

The messages were sent from an unknown number over What’s App, Chin said, adding that the number had been given to police.

Bersih committee member Mandeep Singh, who was among those threatened, told BenarNews that he and his colleagues were “not afraid at all.”

“We reject all kinds of intimidation and threats like this and we ask the people to continue participating in our convoys and come on November 19 to continue spread the institutional reform agenda and other Bersih’s demands,” he told BenarNews.

Selangor state Police Chief Abdul Samah Mat told BenarNews that his department had opened an investigation into the alleged threats.

“We do not know whether it’s from IS or not, let’s see where the investigation leads us. However, a threat is still a threat, so we are taking it seriously,” Abdul told BenarNews.

Jamal on Wednesday accused Bersih’s leadership of spreading false information about threatening messages they had allegedly received.

“The matter was deliberately fabricated by Bersih to gain sympathy from the public, and [they want] to portray me as a bad person,” Jamal said.

“But it’s their right to make a police report and let the police investigate,” he added.