‘It was opposition’s bid to topple government’

By S ULAIMAN JAAFAR AND NIK IMRAN ABDULLAH | news@nst.com.my

ULTERIOR MOTOTIVE: They wanted to turn Dataran Merdeka into ‘Tahrir Square’, says PM

GUA MUSANG: THE Bersih rally near Dataran Merdeka in Kuala Lumpur last Saturday, which turned chaotic, was an attempt by the opposition to topple the government, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said.

He said the government had received information that a group of people had wanted to hijack the rally and occupy Dataran Merdeka for several days, probably until May 1.

He said there were two groups present on that day — one was the participants of a peaceful assembly and the other who wanted to turn the whole thing into a political gathering.

“The latter had the intention of taking over Dataran Merdeka, not gather for two or three hours, but two or three days, or even longer, to show the government cannot control the situation.

“They wanted to turn Dataran Merdeka into Tahrir Square in Egypt,” he said when launching the Kelantan 1Malaysia Community Carnival at the Civic Centre hall here yesterday.

The prime minister was on a one-day working visit here, where more than 30,000 people had waited for his arrival since 7am.

Najib said members of the political group showed they did not respect the government, which was elected democratically by the people.

This was because the incident had left a policeman and several members of the media and the public injured and damaged public property. He added the rioters had also blamed the police for allegedly instigating chaos at the rally.

"I don't deny there may have been some police brutality, but it could be avoided if the participants had obeyed the law approved in Parliament.

"We (the government) had offered a suitable location for them to demonstrate peacefully, and one of them was Merdeka Stadium, but they declined.

"They wanted trouble, so they chose Dataran Merdeka so that when police acted, they could allege police brutality.

"That is why we have to explain to the people the real situation, that they did not fulfil their promise of a peaceful assembly and earlier, they rejected the Stadium Merdeka venue."

However, Najib said the positive thing that had come out of the rally was that a majority of Malaysians rejected force, gangsterism and attacks on police, and felt that the rally should not have been held in the first place.

"It showed they support the government's stand. This includes people like Tunku Aziz (Tunku Abdul Aziz Tunku Ibrahim -- DAP vice-chairman). They know that such a rally can get out of hand."

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‘It was opposition’s bid to topple government’

ULTERIOR MOTOTIVE: They wanted to turn Dataran Merdeka into ‘Tahrir Square’, says PM

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