The steering committee of electoral reform movement Bersih has again spurned Gerakan Youth’s offer to find a suitable stadium to hold the Bersih 5 rally.

This time, Bersih chairperson Maria Chin Abdullah told Gerakan to demand action on the 1MDB scandal instead.

“There are many more issues to be discussed and to be of concern to political parties like Gerakan.

“To start with, I suggest that Gerakan takes the right action and demand that the investigation into the 1MDB scandal be opened again, since the investigations by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission and the Public Accounts Committee have now raised unanswered questions.

“Billions of ringgit in funds have been channelled out of 1MDB and yet none of the political parties in BN have raised an eyebrow. They owe it to the people to ask questions, to seek immediate investigations and to arrest Malaysian Official 1,” Maria told Malaysiakini when contacted today.

She was asked to comment on Gerakan Youth’s letter to Bersih yesterday reiterating its offer to help the movement find a stadium to hold its Bersih 5 rally.

This is to ensure that the rally is held peacefully and would not disturb those in the surrounding areas.

“We acknowledge the rights of anyone to assemble peacefully, as provided under the Peaceful Assembly Act 2012.

“However, it would be unreasonable for anyone to risk public safety and peace in our country to suit any political goals.

“As such, Gerakan Youth hereby offers to Bersih our assistance to find a suitable stadium to hold the Bersih 5 demonstration,” the letter says.

Gerakan Youth chief Tan Keng Liang (photo), who signed the letter, held a press conference in Kuala Lumpur earlier today to announce that the letter has been delivered by email, fax and by post to Bersih and has been acknowledged.

Tan said street rallies risk being hijacked by third parties and also pose a risk to rallygoers and bystanders alike, as seen in the Bersih 3.0 rally on April 28, 2012.

With an official letter delivered to Bersih yesterday, he said, Gerakan Youth commits itself to its offer to help the committee find a suitable stadium for its rally.

“Today, with this letter we give them, it is official. We will help you. We just want their sincerity.

“I think if they are sensible, their interest is only for the country, and to ensure peace in Malaysia, they will accept the offer.

“I have trust that if they are for the country, for peace and for the harmony of the whole country, they will accept the offer,” Tan said.

'Wait at least until after Sept 16' for rally

He also suggested that the Bersih rally should not be held in the month of August and should wait at least until after Sept 16, in view of the looming Merdeka Day and Malaysia Day celebrations.

However, he said, the matter is up to Bersih to decide.

Responding to this, Maria pointed to the Bersih 4 rally on Aug 29-30 last year as an example of how a rally can be held peacefully in Malaysia.

“As far as we are concerned, Bersih 4 is the stellar example of what peaceful assemblies can and should be.

“We have proved to Malaysians that we can organise and assemble peacefully, with the facilitation from the police,” she said.

The overnight rally had at least 150,000 participants at its peak, and was held without any untoward incident.

In contrast, chaos had erupted at the Bersih 3.0 rally, just after organisers gave the order to disperse, when a small group of protesters broke through the police barricades set up around Dataran Merdeka.

A subsequent Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) inquiry had found that the police had used ‘unreasonable measures’ to crack down on the crowd, namely to disperse all protesters by force instead of merely arresting those who broke through the barricade.

The Bersih 3.0 rally had been peaceful up to that point.

More recently, Maria had announced that the Bersih 5 rally will be held to demand action in the 1MDB scandal, but the time and venue is yet to be decided.

The move follows court filings by the US Department of Justice last month, which laid out the purported money trail of funds supposedly misappropriated from 1MDB and laundered through the US financial system.

Among those who supposedly benefited is an individual identified only as ‘Malaysian Official 1’ in the court filings.

Malaysian attorney-general Mohd Apandi Ali responded to the court filings saying that there is no evidence of misappropriation of funds from 1MDB from any investigation, but that a police investigation is still going on.