Dr M: Voters may turn against BN

The former prime minister said that the government may have problems with voters because of its Bersih crackdown.

KUALA LUMPUR: The government’s heavy-handed crackdown on Bersih 2.0 (Coalition for Free and Fair Elections) may affect its chances in the next general election, former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said.

He added that voters were likely to turn against the Barisan Nasional if they felt that the government was riding over their rights.

“Whatever the government does, will be reflected during the election. If they (voters) feel that this government is oppressive, maybe the government will lose votes,” he said at a press conference at the Putra World Trade Centre here today.

“But there are some people who think that the government is too soft… for example, (people have asked) ‘Why should they allow the demonstration inside a hall?’”

Mahathir was, however, evasive on whether the government had overreacted in its crackdown on Bersih, calling it “a matter of opinion”.

“I think the government thinks it should crack down, some people think it should not crack down. Even within the government, there are some for, and some against; this is normal,” he said.

In recent weeks, the government has come down hard on Bersih activists and supporters.

Adopting a hardliner stance, the police have nabbed many for merely wearing Bersih T-shirts. Bersih’s Petaling Jaya office was raided without a warrant, with several of the group’s organisers called in for questioning.

Thirty Parti Socialis of Malaysia (PSM) activists, including Sungai Siput MP Dr D Jeyakumar, were arrested for possessing T-shirts, with the faces of communist leader on them. Six of them have been re-arrested under the Emergency Ordinance (EO).

The home ministry has also been unrelenting in its treatment of Bersih, continuing to regard it as illegal, despite the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin’s acknowledgement of the NGO.

Detrimental effect

On demonstrations, Mahathir said that they could only be allowed if there was no other recourse available.
“If you want to have a demonstration, do it when there is no other means of getting your views across,” he said, adding that Bersih’s electoral demands could have been settled “in other ways”.

He also said that the right to demonstrate was a freedom permitted in a democracy.

However, using Egypt as an example, he warned that continuous rallies could have a detrimental effect on a country.

“You have to be careful whenever you do this kind of things. I just returned from Egypt… they had a big demonstration to overthrow the government. But after that, they are still having demonstrations,” he said.
Mahathir added that as a result of the constant demonstrations there, the country had experienced an economic decline.

He also said that he clamped down on demonstrations on both sides of the political divide when he was in power.

“During 1986, when Umno wanted to have a show of strength, they wanted to bring in 500,000 people to Kuala Lumpur. We stopped it. Not only the opposition, we also stopped the government party as well,” he said.

On his daughter Marina Mahathir’s scathing comments against the government’s treatment of Bersih, he was evasive.

“I don’t often agree with my daughter, but that is her right. I give the freedom of democracy to her. I don’t have an opinion (about her),” he said to laughter.

Marina had previously condemned the government as a “third-world country”, and attacked certain parties for their personal attacks against Bersih chairman Ambiga Sreenevasan.