'Hello MP, we're watching how you vote'
While concerned citizens including the Bar Council have taken to the streets in a last ditch effort to force the government to withdraw the Peaceful Assembly bill, netizens have taken to cyberspace with their own campaign.
While concerned citizens including the Bar Council have taken to the streets in a last ditch effort to force the government to withdraw the Peaceful Assembly bill which will be voted on tonight, netizens have taken to cyberspace with their own campaign.
Taking up the advice by Bersih 2.0 chief
Ambiga Sreenevasan (
left
) to hold MPs "accountable to their voters", netizens have launched a campaign to remind their MPs that how they vote on the controversial bill may well determine how netizens would vote for them come the general election.
Leading this effort is a campaign called '#HelloMP' in which netizens post up photographs of themselves holding up the names of their constituency and MP, urging them to reject the Peaceful Assembly bill on Facebook .
A website has been set up for the campaign with instructions on how citizens can voice their opposition to the bill to their MPs via email and short text messages or alternatively sign an online petition.
The campaign has also taken to Twitter with users directly contacting their respective MPs on the micro-blogging site, urging them to reject the bill.
An example was
Twitter
user mikelanding1 tweeting to Bukit Katil MP Md Sirat Abu: "#HelloMP @datukmdsirat as my elected MP, pls reject Peaceful Assembly Bill! I don't wan to get fine when "assemble" in mamak stall," followed by a series of other messages to the MP.
At this, Sirat replied: "I suggest u read the Bill n understand it for the peace of the country. Do you like ur children become the wall of the assembly."
Over 500 signatures
In a statement released this morning, the organiser claimed that the campaign had garnered over 500 signatures from Malaysians all over the country.
"Out of the 222 MPs in Parliament, 114 have been petitioned so far, with 47 from BN, 60 from Pakatan Rakyat and seven Independents," read the statement.
It added that Pakatan MPs have pledged to reject the Bill but no one from BN or the Independents has responded to state their rejection so far.
The campaigners also emailed three MPs this morning - Saifuddin Abdullah (Umno - Temerloh) ( right ), Lim Lip Eng (DAP - Segambut) and Dr Michael Jeyakumar Devaraj (PSM - Sungai Siput) asking them to notify the Dewan of this petition campaign.
"We support the call by the Bar Council's President, Lim Chee Wee, to humbly request all the wakil rakyat listed here to not put blind obedience to party and partisanship before your duties as a servant of the people.
"The rakyat should not be made to suffer the consequences of party politics. Peaceful Assembly Bill 2011 is an unjust law, being made in undue haste, which has received the condemnation of the rakyat," added the statement.
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