KEADILAN Akan Mobilisasi 50,000 Ahli Ke Bersih 3.0

KUALA LUMPUR, April 19 – Joining its partner PAS, PKR said today it hopes to mobilise at least 50,000 members to join the Bersih 3.0 sit-in at Dataran Merdeka next Saturday.

Its secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution (picture) said today that the party is encouraging all its 500,000 members nationwide to show up “in full force” as a way of recording their unhappiness with the government.

“While the people welcome the positive aspect of the PSC (parliamentary select committee) recommendations, yet the government failed to show commitment to implement some very key demands of Bersih,” he said in a statement here.

“We have about 500,000 party members… Let’s say if we can mobilise 10 per cent of that, or even less than 5 per cent…,” he added when met in Parliament.

The Machang MP said that PKR members would be able to manage themselves well as they have had at least 12 years of experience in such matters under their belts.

It was a “standard operating procedure”, he said, for PKR members to organise themselves into large groups to attend such crucial events.

Pakatan Rakyat (PR) lawmakers and election watchdog Bersih have been criticising the 22-point recommendations made by the PSC earlier this month to reform the election process.

The PSC was mooted by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak following the negative publicity his administration drew for its widespread clampdown on Bersih’s rally last July 9.

Although the nine-member PSC included members from PR’s camp, the pact’s lawmakers have complained that their views were not given adequate consideration in the panel’s final report which was tabled in Parliament on April 2 and subsequently passed without debates.

Unhappy with the PSC’s findings, Bersih recently announced that it will hold yet another rally this April 28 at Dataran Merdeka.

Earlier today, PAS’s national leadership instructed all its members and supporters to attend the rally.

Both PAS and PKR’s pledges to mobilise its members add a major boost for the electoral reforms protest movement, which was dismissed earlier today as having very little traction with the public.