The management of Stadium Merdeka has refused to allow the facility to be used for the Bersih 2.0 rally on Saturday.

A statement posted on the Bersih 2.0 Facebook page said the booking officer had made several “excuses” to refuse the booking.

“Among the unclear reasons provided by (the) officer were (about) an ‘internal management sports event’ and ‘renovations’," reads the statement.

“(This is) despite the fact that until very recently, there were plans to hold ‘Konsert Raksaksa 2' on July 9 at Stadium Merdeka.” 

Konsert Raksaksa 2, featuring rock outfits Sweet Charity and Blues Gang, has been posponed to Oct 1 due to security concerns.

Stadium Merdeka the ‘only’ suitable location

The statement by the Bersih 2.0 steering committee said they had approached Stadium Merdeka to make booking in view of the Agong’s audience with the group yesterday.

After the audience, Bersih 2.0's chairperson Ambiga Sreenevasan announced that the movement had agreed with the government’s request to hold the rally in a stadium.
 
The committee said that it is insisting on Stadium Merdeka because the venue represents the values of their cause.

“In order to be faithful to the aspirations of the rakyat, Bersih 2.0 is strongly of the view that as part of the agreement to hold the rally in the stadium, a proper venue that reflects the scale and centrality of this issue to Malaysians throughout the nation must be selected.
 
“We have decided that Stadium Merdeka is the only location that appropriately meets this criteria, and take the firm position that to demonstrate his sincerity and good faith.

“The Prime Minister must as a matter of honour make good on his offer to let us use an appropriate stadium immediately,” said the committee.

PM must honours his word

The committee said that with only three days to go before the rally, the government must intervene to allow the event to go on.

“Any delay in approving the use of Stadium Merdeka can only be an unacceptable effort to further delay and frustrate our movement.

“We have no doubt that strong leadership by the top executive will not tolerate any procedural obstacles to a speedy approval,” they said.

The committee said that Bersih 2.0 wants nothing more than to work with all parties, especially the government of the day, to bring about free and fair electoral system.

“We sincerely hope that the Prime Minister will remain true to his word and suffer no further delays whatsoever to honouring his word  and respecting in full the spirit of agreements that have been made,” they said.

Respect the monarch’s will

Meanwhile, Bersih 2.0 also called on the authorities to cease its “arrests, harassment and intimidation” of its supporters and continued attempts to paint the movement as an illegal society.

“Continuing to maintain that Bersih 2.0 is an illegal organisation is a direct and disrespectful contradiction by these institutions of the understanding that was reached via the good graces of DYMM SPB YDP Agong.
 
“We call upon the authorities to respect the will of our nation's monarch, and cease these actions against Bersih 2.0 with immediate effect,” said the committee.

More than 200 people have been arrested over the past two weeks in connection with the Bersih 2.0 rally, which organisers say was to petition the Agong on the need for electoral reforms.

Authorities say that the rally would cause unrest and have vowed to prevent the event from taking place.



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