Umno Youth: We'll march to stadium, too
Despite the ban on its leaders from entering the city and the absence of a police permit, Umno Youth is still pressing on and insists it will march to Stadium Merdeka tomorrow.
Despite the ban on its leaders from entering the city and the absence of a police permit, Umno Youth is still pressing on and insists it will march to Stadium Merdeka tomorrow.
The movement's chief Khairy Jamaluddin Abu Bakar (right) said while the wing was still appealing against the permit application rejection, its members would still assemble, no matter what.
“We will assemble on Jalan Bukit Bintang at 10am.
“We are still negotiating and appealing to the police to let us march to the Stadium Merdeka,” Khairy said, adding that the decision to march to the stadium may only be decided tomorrow morning.
Having been slapped with a court-issued restriction order yesterday, Umno Youth remains unfazed and promised to carry out its march, dubbed the ‘Patriot’ rally.
“No decision or list will stop us from gathering. It is already a consensus within the Umno Youth exco to gather peacefully and to appeal for a permit to be in Stadium Merdeka,” he said, adding that they will discuss the matter with the stadium management today.
“This is our democratic right to assemble peacefully which is enshrined in the federal constitution.
"We don’t want to confront the police or anyone... but we will accept whatever consequences or action that is taken against us,” Khairy told a press conference at the party headquarters in Kuala Lumpur this afternoon.
Despite claims by the Kuala Lumpur police chief that no one has applied for a permit so far, Khairy insisted that they had already applied for one on June 24, and their request was only rejected on Wednesday.
‘Not out to pick up a fight’
With the Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (Bersih 2.0) expecting to assemble at Stadium Merdeka as well tomorrow, Khairy left it to the police to handle the crowd.
However, he gave an assurance that his group was not interested in looking for a fight.
“We are not interested in clashing, but crowd control is the responsibility of the police. We are not here to cause a ruckus and we are not looking for an excuse to fight,” he said.
He also defended the group’s decision to march to Stadium Merdeka instead when they had initially planned to march to Istana Negara to hand over their own petition.
“This is because we applied for it first,” he said.
Cancelling the plans for a petition, Khairy said that the move intended to keep the royal institution out of the issue since the Agong had issued an edict on the matter.
'Patriot is not illegal'
He also refuted claims that Patriot is an illegal body, following the outlawing of Bersih 2.0 as announced by the home minister last Saturday.
“The Patriot rally is a programme, it is not an organisation. But if Umno Youth is also an illegal body, then we have a serious problem,” he said.
But this was not the same with Bersih 2.0, which Khairy claimed had been hijacked by opposition politics.
“It is no longer an issue for clean and fair elections. The agenda that they are now carrying is highly anti-government, highly anti-BN and extremely partisan and political...
“The Election Commission is free, but it has room to improve. Whatever way it is using must be correct.
"What Bersih is now doing is that it is demonising BN leaders and antagonising the government. That’s the wrong way,” Khairy added.
