KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 8 — Perikatan Nasional (PN) secretary-general Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin today said the coalition won’t be joining any protests or rallies that are not aligned with its constitution.
He said this after the Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (Bersih 2.0) yesterday told Putrajaya that it was ready to organise another mass demonstration against the government if it does not take concrete steps to implement promised institutional reforms in the coming parliamentary meetings.
“Bersih hasn’t invited us. I think if they want to take to the streets, they can’t say ‘we want to come down, you can come!’ You should allow us to agree to disagree about certain things; only then can we cooperate.
“They can’t just invite us over one issue. It can’t be like that, because they must understand we are all politicians here, while they are not.
“It’s OK. Those of us who have a party, we have to really look at our ideological principles and the constitution of our party, so we have to draw the line somewhere,” he said during a press conference here.
Yesterday, Bersih chairman Faisal Abdul Aziz said it demanded that the government begin delivering on the reforms promised during the 15th general election in 2022, including the separation of the attorney general’s functions and the restoration of Parliament’s independence from the executive.
Faisal said the government must implement these reforms as they were promised the election manifestos of the coalitions that were now in power.
He added that the priority was for structural reforms, and that his organisation would closely monitor the next parliamentary meeting for progress on these promises.
Faisal said Bersih was issuing this warning due to recent developments that show the derailment of the reform agenda.