Australia ABC Radio On Bersih !

Malaysia's ruling BN coalition says crisis averted

Updated July 6, 2011 22:12:17

www.radioaustralia.net.au/asiapac/


Topic : Malaysia ruling coalition BN says.......

Malaysia's ruling Barisan Nasional coalition has denied being embarassed by the King's intervention in the Bersih2 crisis.

One component of the BN coalition, the MCA or Malaysian Chinese Association, says no one wants to see chaos on the streets.

Neil Foo is a strategist for the youth wing of both the MCA and the Barisan Nasional.

Presenter: Sen Lam

Speaker: Neil Foo, strategist, MCA Youth & Barisan Nasional

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FOO: Everybody wants to go for a peaceful approach, give and take, so nobody wants to have it on the road, that would cause some problem to the public, you see.

LAM: Do you think the fact that the King saw the need to intervene, that the King was a little alarmed by the heavy-handed tactics employed by the government in cracking down on people, even wearing yellow tee shirts?

FOO: Umm, not really, not really. Of course, the King he has his own discretion, and also, as a person who loves the country, he just took the initiative to encourage a dialogue with all parties, for the ultimate safety and also the peace of the country. The government's also concerned about the people's safety, you know.

Whether it's free publicity (for Bersih) or not, we have to bear with it, you know.

Every result, or every move for the peace of the country - this could be either way - the ultimate, I believe should be on the safety and the peace of the country.

A mass rally on the road, and everybody moves to the city, so the police had to do something to prevent it, rather than to cure it. And maybe, it could've been out of control, you see.

So the yellow shirts - there's always a misperception, that anybody who wears just a plain piece of yellow shirt, they would be caught. But in fact, if you look at their shirts, there are some words about Bersih, about the mass rally, on which date, to move on, you see. So it's not right that anybody in yellow would be caught. So you have to observe and see clearly from the words that they mention on the tee shirts, soliciting the public to come and join the rally. So that's why I think it was just a preventative measure by the police.

LAM: And what is MCA's attitude towards Bersih's demands such as the cleaning up of the electoral roll, to allow all parties free access to the media and an end to electoral fraud - what's your attitude to these demands?

FOO: Yes, our attitude and stand is very clear - that we support a clean election, a fair election, but we do not support or condone any street demonstration or rally.

LAM: But Bersih's whole existence is about clean and fair elections and about electoral reform. So does that mean that, if you want the same things as well, that you will encourage your MCA members to attend the rally at the stadium this weekend?

FOO: No, no, we won't encourage, because everybody has their own approach, so long as it's legitimate and legal. But it doesn't mean we have to support their ways or their approach in a stadium. We use our proper channel, involving our political coalition or even in the government or other proper channel that we can voice out, to approach our objective.