Red shirts plan more counter-rallies

PETALING JAYA: The Datuk Jamal Yunos-led Red Shirts may hold gatherings in Putrajaya, KLIA and klia2, aside from the Kuala Lumpur city centre, to counter the Bersih 5 rally on Nov 19.

The Sungai Besar Umno division chief said he had received information from sources that electoral watchdog Bersih 2.0 plans to hold demonstrations there.

“Aside from Dataran Merdeka and surrounding areas, we will also submit a permit application to gather in these three places, because this is what Bersih plans to do. Wherever Bersih goes, we will also be there.

“I have received detailed information from Bersih meetings, we have our agents. So these are the places they plan to hold their rallies,” he told theSun yesterday.

When contacted, Bersih 2.0 chairman Maria Chin Abdullah, however, denied the claim, saying: “Please don’t listen to rumours.”

Jamal explained that the gathering this weekend was only to address representatives from NGOs nationwide on preparations for the Nov 19 mammoth rally, which he claimed would gather over 300,000 red shirt participants.

Meanwhile in PETALING JAYA, Maria Chin is disappointed over Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin’s call for a clampdown on the Bersih 5 rally set for Nov 19.

Khairy, who is also youth and sports minister, urged the police to block access to Dataran Merdeka for the fifth instalment of the Bersih rally, as well as ensure that no marches take place from the locations identified.

“If so, then it will be back to where it started (clampdown on peaceful assembly). It is very disappointing that this is coming from the minister,” she told theSun yesterday.

Khairy was also quoted by a local Malay daily as saying that the red shirt counter-rally would not take place if Bersih decides to abandon its plan for the gathering in Dataran Merdeka.

Maria Chin, however, insisted that everybody has the right to assemble and that it is just a matter of how they conduct themselves and cooperate with the police.