Media statement by Lim Kit Siang in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday, 27^th May 2012: 

Is Mahathir telling the world that his daughter Marina is naïve to be a pawn of Bersih 3.0 and Pakatan Rakyat to topple the Najib government by violence?

Malaysians must thank former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir for furnishing the fifth evidence of the highest-level campaign to vilify and demonise Bersih 3.0 and Pakatan Rakyat and why the Hanif Omar “independent advisory panel” to investigate into Bersih 3.0 violence is totally unacceptable and should be scrapped altogether.

The four evidence were earlier provided by the Prime Minister, the Home Minister and two former Inspector-General of Police, viz:

• The wild and baseless allegation by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak that Bersih 3.0 rally was coup attempt by the Opposition to topple the government;

• The instant public support for Najib’s coup allegation by former Inspector-General of Police, Tun Hanif Omar who said he identified pro-communist individuals at Bersih 3.0 from demonstrations in the 1970s with futher allegation on the use of provocateurs and children in the Bersih 3.0 rally as tactics of the communists!

• The equally instant public support for Najib’s coup allegation by another former Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Rahim Noor who went on to allege that Bersih 3.0 had used “Marxist” tactics as well as accusing the Opposition of wanting blood shed as it was not confident of taking over Putrajaya.

• The allegation by Home Minister, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein in an interview with Sunday Star on May 20 that “democracy was hijacked” on April 28.

Mahathir’s blog two days ago that the Bersih 3.0 rally was a “preparation” and “warm-up” by Pakatan Rakyat for violent demonstrations to reject the results of the 13th general election should the opposition fail to win it is the fifth evidence of the highest-level campaign of vilification and demonization of Bersih 3.0 and Pakatan Rakyat involving the current and former Prime Minister, two IGPs and the current Home Minister, although they have not furnished one iota of evidence to substantiate their serious allegations in the past month.

What they have done is to collectively stack grounds to justify the case why the Hanif “independent advisory panel” should be scrapped altogether as nobody expects the Hanif panel to be able to independent, impartial and objective when there is the highest-level involvement in the campaign of vilification and demonization of Bersih 3.0 and Pakatan Rakyat.

In fact, Hanif, together with Najib, Mahathir, Hishammuddin and Rahim Noor should be required to appear as star witnesses to substantiate their preposterous allegations before a truly independent and credible inquiry into what went wrong at Bersih 3.0 on April 28 as to cause the deplorable incidents of violence and brutality, regardless of whether the victims are police personnel, media representative or peaceful protestors.

If the five - Najib, Mahathir, Hishammuddin, Hanif and Rahim Noor - are unable to produce any evidence to substantiate their allegations against Bersih 3.0 and Pakatan Rakyat, then these five VVIPs should have the decency to publicly retract their preposterous allegations and tender public apologies.

In this connection, is Mahathir telling the world that his daughter Marina is naïve to be a pawn of Bersih 3.0 and Pakatan Rakyat to topple the Najib government by violence?

Is he using the same brush to tar the 200,000 to 300,000 Malaysians regardless of race, religion, region, class, gender or age who had performed a supreme act of patriotism and national service in coming out peacefully on April 28 in support of a common national cause – a clean election and a clean Malaysia?

Mahathir should be commending Marina for her commendable public-spiritedness and patriotism in participating in both Bersih 3.0 on April 28 and Bersih 2.0 on July 9, 2011 instead of throwing brickbats as her and Malaysians who had rallied to the Bersih cause.

*Lim Kit Siang, DAP Parliamentary Leader & MP for Ipoh Timor