Gerard Lourdesamy: Dataran Merdeka not gazetted? What rubbish? Stadiums not gazetted, public squares and parks not gazetted, roads not gazetted, then where to gather? On the moon?
This is the farce called the Peaceful Assembly Act 2011, a piece of crap legislation used by PM Najib Razak to hoodwink the people and foreign governments that he is open, liberal and a reformist.
If not Dataran Merdeka, the rakyat should gather outside the new huge Istana Negara in Jalan Duta and petition our beloved king.
We are fed up with the games that Umno-BN is playing using the Parliament and the Election Commission (EC) as their rubber stamp.
If they want to hold on to power forever, just abolish Parliament and elections and become a dictatorship.
KAI: Minister in the PM's Department Nazri Abdul Aziz said that "the venue cannot be used for a gathering, even a peaceful one."
Then why are people assembling there on National Day and also New Year's Eve?
Dr PM: I am surprised that Bersih 3.0 protesters cannot gather at Dataran Merdeka to express their views on free and fair elections. How then on every weekend people gather and have functions there?
Jalan Raja is closed at weekends by the police and City Hall to facilitate these functions. Traffic jams occur and people inconvenienced. Businesses are affected. Are these functions illegal?
If it is not, please explain how the Bersih rally to clean the country's electoral system is illegal. It appears there is a different set of laws for different people.
Metallic Black: Dataran Merdeka is built for multi-purpose use. It can be used for concerts, speeches, theme parties, exhibitions, sport events, public displays, family day events, and so on.
The Dataran belongs to all Malaysians, it was not built just for BN or Umno. As long as Bersih 3.0 events are held in an orderly and disciplined fashion, it should be okay.
Bersih should organise an event that include public concerts, debates, speeches and activities for all family members. Set up food and beverage stalls, cooking competitions, sport events and photography competitions.
I think 100,000 Malaysians will enjoy a nice afternoon on April 28. Bravo to the organisers.
SKT: I often see the authorities blocking Dataran Merdeka for marathon or tourism events, so how can 1Malaysia have 2Standards?
Fair Play: Nazri, you are not seeing the forest for the trees. Bersih 3.0 will go nationwide and selected locations internationally.
Have you asked yourself if BN acceded to Bersih 2.0 demands for a fair election, would there be any Bersih 3.0 to start with?
Disbeliever: The war has begun. The first salvo has been fired by Nazri, the clown minister. He has sent a clear message. He's telling in no uncertain terms that Bersih 3.0 cannot be held.
We have to push for reforms so that the coming GE will be held if not on a totally level-playing field, at least on a reasonably level field.
Pondering Why: Dataran Merdeka means Freedom Square. All Malaysians will gather at this square to ensure free and fair elections.
If Umno-BN and EC are committed to the same goals as Bersih, they should participate along with Bersih to demonstrate their commitment to live up to the aspirations of the people.
Otherwise the people will conclude that Umno-BN, with the cooperation of the EC, will unscrupulously cheat and manipulate the votes in order to win the forthcoming elections.
The Bersih 3.0 rally is fully justified and is should be held at Freedom Square to rid our beloved country from unbridled corruption, electoral manipulation and gross abuse of power by unscrupulous leaders.
Jeremy Ng: Our 'employees', i.e. the ruling politicians, are behaving as if they are bosses. It is time that all of them are terminated and replaced by a new team.
Malaysians, who are the real bosses, have tolerated these undisciplined and corrupted 'employees' for too long.
Khairy says no reason for Bersih to demonstrate
Quigonbond: Who's Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin kidding? The EC has just shot down six of the PSC's (parliamentary select committee) paltry recommendations.
The PSC itself bombs on the most important issues recommended by the coalition of NGOs passionate about having free and fair elections.
No way in this generation of Malaysians is the EC going to suddenly have a change of heart, genuinely consider the recommendations, and implement them pronto.
Far from it, they will continue to do everything in their power to ensure BN stays in federal government. The only way forward is to have overwhelming Malaysians (65 percent) vote Pakatan Rakyat.
Electoral reform may be an immediate Pakatan agenda, but BN should bear in mind that in the long term, if Pakatan wins despite lacking electoral reform, BN will never stand a chance to crawl back from being a federal opposition if the current system continues.
But we don't expect BN parliamentarians to think so far ahead, do we?
Anon-23: If the demands of Bersih have been met, why would the rakyat want to have Bersih 3.0?
It's the regime that has lost the plot and wants only to remain in power at all costs. It seems to me BN is against clean and fair elections and there's no need to wonder why.
Blind Freddo: For Khairy to make statements like that almost guarantees that Bersih will be bigger and stronger than ever before.
Kgen: Under the present conditions, there is no chance for free and fair elections. There is practically no chance that BN can be kicked out. The scum in BN aren't afraid of losing the election, they are only fighting to get back its two-thirds majority.
Recently even some African countries have undergone regime change via elections democratically. We are worse than them.
We are becoming like Arab countries where the regime in power can never lose no matter how unpopular. Egypt's Hosni Mubarak managed to win 90 percent of Parliament seats with almost no grassroots support.
Thanks to the lapdog EC, Malaysians have lost their right to self-determination.
Geronimo: "If we look at it honestly, seven out of the eight Bersih demands are already in the recommendations of the PSC," said Khairy.
Sorry, Khairy, I may have missed something here, but what are the seven that you speak of?
I dare say if GE13 was to go ahead, we will definitely need international observers to see for themselves the way Umno run the election.
The EC (Election Commission) has no political will to implement reforms. On the contrary, it is doing all it can to sabotage reforms.
An example is the reduction of postal votes by 100,000 through advance voting for the armed forces and police. Now the EC wants to appoint an extra 100,000 election workers with postal votes to compensate for the lost of the armed personnel postal votes.
We all know that postal votes are fake votes for BN through an opaque process with no monitoring.
With the EC hell-bent on helping BN win, how can there be meaningful reforms? Malaysians do not even have the right to choose their own government. Bring on Bersih 3.0!
Zombie: The main problem is we do not have a credible Election Commission. Our EC act as they are part of political parties.
If we have a credible and effective EC, all the recommendations by Bersih would have long come from the EC. Bersih would have cease to exist.
I suggest that Bersih 3.0 include the transformation of our EC so that it will carry out its constitutional duties to conduct free, fair and peaceful elections.
Anonymous_3f4a: With the issue of free and fair elections manipulated right from the outset by the federal government, the PSC (parliamentary select committee) was doomed before it even began its work.
It's crystal clear that the Umno-BN government would want the electoral process to remain intact and it's not in their interest to move towards a free and fair environment for the electoral process for reasons best known to its leadership.
And it's public knowledge that elections in Malaysia are manipulated, engineered to ensure victory of the ruling candidates.
The PSC (parliamentary select committee) was formed only after public pressure being brought to bear arising from Bersih 2.0 rally. It's hardly an indication of a reform initiative by Najib's administration.
Obviously, there are purposes to serve for the electoral process to remain untouched, especially so in the coming general election which is being dubbed as the 'mother of all battles'.
Anonymous #41809171: "If we subscribe to and endorse the principle of having international observers by our participation in such missions, then Malaysia's reticence in inviting international observers is wholly inexplicable," said the Bersih committee.
Why is this inexplicable? Malaysia
went to Burma and
Thailand to observe and pick up tips on how to intimidate voters and manipulate poll results.
However, they would not welcome observers from other countries to check out our own polls for fear that their shenanigans will be reported.
Whats Next On The Agenda?: No one in their right mind ever believe that Bersih can be satisfied. What they failed to say was that during Anwar Ibrahim's tenure as DPM, the electoral fraud was even worse.
Anwar has no moral rights to claim anything, and his comments about Malaysia now only shows how much you can trust him. I think the Burmese generals can be trusted more than Anwar.
Incidentally, those of you who think Bersih 3.0 is going to be a huge tsunami, think again, it will be nothing more than a ripple in the ocean.
What is clear is that Bersih 3.0 will be filled with all Pakatan supporters, and not the rakyat who want clean and fair elections. So bring on Bersih 3.0, who cares.
James1067: The reason there is no real effort to clean up the electoral roll and to make the necessary changes is because it is not in favour of the ruling government.
This upcoming election is the most crucial in the nation's history and most of the people have woken up to the fact that they have been shortchanged.
Quigonbond: As if it is not bad enough that Bersih 2.0 finds the PSC recommendations sorely lacking, these recommendations have been further shot to smithereens by the almighty Election Commission.
This is the hour when many a Malaysian would say "I told you so" - confirming the sentiment of skepticism when the PSC was set up. Did the government think it can get away with this charade?
Malaysians need Bersih 3.0, not because we're fond of being beaten by baton, inhaling tear gas or getting splashed by chemically-laced jet water, but because we know that some of our votes are only worth a fraction of the vote of someone in Putrajaya.
We march because we know that it will take Pakatan Rakyat at least 65 percent majority votes just to secure a simple majority in the Parliament, because the odds are stacked against them through gerrymandering, rigging and fraud.
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