Utusan overdrives on Bersih 'communist' plot

Utusan Malaysia today intensified the ‘communist threat’ bogeyman drive against the coming Bersih 2.0 rally, alleging links between the organisers with Filipino armed terrorists and an American pro-democracy NGO.

The Umno-linked Malay daily  trumpeted ‘Communists infiltrate Bersih’ as its front page headline and spent more than an entire page inside demonising the coalition for free and fair elections and its supporters as rabble rousers out to topple the government.

Citing an unnamed source, the paper claimed their “threat against national security” had reached a “worrying stage”.

Accusing Bersih of “conspiring” with “foreign agents” to “spread their evil propaganda to overturn the government”, Utusan cited as proof two foreigners who were rounded up along with Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) members last Saturday.

PSM on Saturday told Malaysiakini that its 'Udahlah tu... Bersaralah' (Enough, Retire Now) campaign that saw many of the party members arrested was not related to Bersih 2.0.

In Utusan's report titled 'National security threatened', the two foreigners arrested were named as Filipino Romeo Castillo, 56, and South Korean Min Young Song, 24.

Castillo is a trade unionist while Song is a Chonnam National University student and member of the Gwangju-based May 18 Memorial Foundation.

The duo was hauled up while accompanying a group of PSM activists in front of the Matriculation College in Ledang, Johor.

Unusual communists

Utusan quoted its source saying that Castillo and Song were out to “cause chaos” in the country.

“We won’t discount that Castillo has links to the Communist Party of the Philippines, which has murdered many countrymen and which has been engaged in armed conflicts to the point that it has been listed as a terrorist group,” Utusan quoted its source as saying.

Meanwhile Song, said Utusan, was a member of a pro-democracy May 18 Foundation in South Korea and she came to Kuala Lumpur on the invitation of the US-based National Democratic Institute (NDI).

It added that NDI came under the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), which is advised by former US state secretary Madeleine Albright, who Utusan said was an "ally of Anwar Ibrahim".

In a full page expose, Utusan also ran articles listing Bersih’s committee members, excerpts of opposition leaders’ public comments that showed Bersih’s “ulterior motive” and other anti-Bersih stories.

The opposite page centrepieced Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein (above) saying that the ISA could be used against Bersih in the interest of national security.

'Utusan got facts wrong'

However, the elections research organisation National Institute for Democracy and Electoral Integrity (NIEI) disputed Utusan’s report.

NIEI general secretary Amin Iskandar said the Malay daily’s report is contradictory, as it alleges a communist infiltration but claims links with the US in the same breath.

“First, (Utusan) talks of a communist link, then it links the detainees to the US.

“Furthermore, South Korea (Song’s home country) is a pro-capitalist state,” he said.

“(In addition) NIEI does not have any links with NDI. The information (in Utusan’s article) is clearly wrong,” said Amin when met by Malaysiakini this evening.

He said Song is in the country to perform field work as part of her attachment programme with their organisation.

Song was rearrested on Monday evening after being released with Castillo, and presently remains detained, while Castillo is believed to have left the country on Sunday.

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