More opposition and civil society leaders have been questioned by the police today over the Bersih 4 rally, supposedly for wearing Bersih 4 T-shirts.

Those questioned today were former Bersih co-chairperson Ambiga Sreenevasan, Selangor exco member Elizabeth Wong, and Kapar MP G. Manivannan, at the Petaling Jaya district police headquarters.

Their lawyer Latheefa Koya added that Selangor Menteri Besar Mohd Azmin Ali will also be questioned over the same alleged offence tomorrow morning at the Dang Wangi district police headquarters.

In addition, Azmin will also be investigated for allegedly bringing a minor to the Bersih 4 rally, which took place on Aug 29 and 30, and for calling the inspector-general of police Khalid Abu Bakar a lackey ( barua ).

This follows the questioning of Batu MP Tian Chua ( photo ) on Sept 7 for wearing a Bersih 4 T-shirt .

Speaking to reporters outside the district police headquarters after the questioning, Ambiga vows to challenge the ban on wearing Bersih 4 T-shirts.

“I will be challenging that gazette notification. I’m gonna talk to my lawyers about it to put an end to this nonsense.

“I think we really need to get a conclusion to this. That’s certainly my next step,” she said.

Two days ahead of the Bersih 4 rally, Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had gazetted an order under the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984 banning Bersih 4 T-shirts.

Also banned under the order are any printed material and pamphlets promoting the Bersih 4 rally.

Under Section 8 of the PPPA, those in possession of the prohibited materials would be fined up to RM5,000 upon conviction, while those who produce or sell it are liable to a penalty of up to three years' imprisonment, or a fine up to RM20,000, or both.

Apart from Ambiga, the Bersih 2.0 coalition had also vowed to challenge the ban in court.

Civil society to build bridges post-rally

On another matter, when asked to comment on the Himpunan Rakyat Bersatu rally yesterday, Ambiga said she has little to say about it because what happened at the rally "speaks for itself".

Moving forward however, she said civil society groups will be focusing its efforts on ‘bridge-building’ between leaders who are interested in a ‘Malaysian Malaysia’.

The Negaraku patron said she is not prepared to brand all of the rally’s participants as racists, as some of them appeared to be clueless on why they were there.

“So we need to reach out. We need to make it clear that we do not condone racist politics. Civil society certainly wants to work towards bridge building and that’s basically what we want to do,” she said.

Meanwhile, Latheefa chastised Umno supreme council member Annuar Musa (photo) for justifying racialism on basis of Islam, and urged the Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim) to take action against him.

“That is insulting Islam […] Let me remind him that asabiyyah (tribalism) is not an Islamic principle, asabiyyah is a pre-Islamic, Jahiliyah-era principle where people are clannish or tribal. They stick together and they work for tribal interests.

“So he is trying to say that Islam allows asabiyyah therefore Islam allows racism. That is completely wrong and it’s very irresponsible, and we want Jakim to ask him to correct himself or now we will have to go around telling the people, especially the Malay Muslims, that Umno is saying that Islam is racist,” she said.

Yesterday, Annuar was reported to have said at the rally that the rally was racist, but insisted that it was Islamic.

He had supposedly quoted a hadith (a saying attributed to the Prophet) on asabiyyah to justify this claim.