PKR Youth defers Utusan protest to avoid clash
PKR Youth delayed its schedule protest today against Malay language daily Utusan Malaysia to avoid a brawl with Malay right groups Perkasa and Umno.
PKR Youth delayed its schedule protest today against Malay language daily Utusan Malaysia to avoid a brawl with Malay right groups Perkasa and Umno.
The movement’s deputy information chief Rozan Azen Mat Rasip (
left
) told
Malaysiakini
when contacted that the party had arranged to protest against the daily first, but when the intention was made public their foes announced for a counter demonstration-in-support on the same day.
“We want to avoid an unnecessary clash and tension... considering the safety of our members,” said Rozan.
“The question here is why did they pick the same day?” he asked, as it would vex both parties.
It also coincided with the Pakatan Rakyat coalition’s protest against the Lynas Advanced Material Plant (Lamp) project.
He said that he was informed by party superiors that PKR Youth should postpone their protest and focus on the march against the Lamp project to the Australian High Commission.
About 200 participants from the People’s Green Coalition opposed Lynas’s RM700 million rare earth refinery in Kuantan, Pahang.
Although PKR Youth members were absent, Perkasa and Umno Youth went ahead with their
show of support
for the newspaper with some 150 supporters.
They warned PKR Youth to not criticise Utusan any more and forebade them from protesting against the daily.
Asked for the next date for the protest to be divulged, Rozan said: “We can’t announce it earlier because we are afraid there might be chaos again”.
PKR Youth’s grouse with Utusan is its report two weeks ago that alleged Christian leaders were conspiring to change the federal constitution in order to install a Christian as a prime minister and turn the Muslim-majority country into a Christian state.
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Incite (verb) - to stir up or provoke violence
