Maria Chin Abdullah

KUALA LUMPUR, JULY 29: The Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (Bersih) today announced that it will be holding an overnight street rally on Aug 29 and 30 to demand the resignation of embattled Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.

Bersih chairperson Maria Chin Abdullah said the rally (Bersih 4.0) will begin at 2pm on Aug 29, and a location will be announced at a later date.

This rally follows 2012’s Bersih 3.0 rally, which saw over 80,000 people on the streets of Kuala Lumpur to demand electoral reforms.

This time, said Chin, the demands of the 2015 rally will be clean elections, clean government, and the right to dissent.

The street protest comes hot on the heels of a series of exposés on the debt-ridden 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), which implicated Najib in the misappropriation of up to US$700 million in 1MDB funds into his personal bank accounts.

After the allegations surfaced, Putrajaya proceeded to stifle dissenting voices, including banning several MPs, including vocal 1MDB critic Tony Pua, from travelling; suspension of permits of two publications from The Edge media group, and blocking access to whistleblower site, Sarawak Report.

“Bersih is dedicated to an electoral system and system of governance that is free, fair, and open. Given the depth of the corruption that has been alleged, the allegations that this money was used to manipulate the GE13 and the implication of the highest political office in the land, the credibility of the very institutions of government is at stake,” Chin told a press conference.

“We will inform the police about the rally and we expect the police force to provide security for us. We hope that those incidences during Bersih 3.0 will not repeat themselves,” added Chin.

The Bersih 3.0 rally had turned chaotic after riot police fired cannisters of tear gas and chemical-laced water at protestors.

“We invite all patriotic Malaysians to join the rally to demand for Najib to step down and the institutional reforms to be implemented so as to end prime-ministerial corruption,” she added.

– The Rocket