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AUNTY BERSIH AND ROSNI MALAN

KUALA LUMPUR: Two unlikely ‘heroes’ of the July Bersih 2.0 rally, Annie Ooi Siew Lan and Rosni Malan have pleaded with the king not to dissolve Parliament until electoral reforms have taken place.

Rosni’s husband, Baharuddin Ahmad, died from heart complications during the rally. Ooi, nicknamed “Aunty Bersih” was seen being sprayed with chemical-laced water cannons and tear gas during the rally.

They are asking the king, Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin, to use his discretion to not consent to Parliament’s dissolution anytime soon.

Speaking on their behalf, their lawyer M Visvanathan said: “What we’re trying to achieve is to put enough pressure on the powers-that-be, especially the Yang Dipertuan-Agong, to invoke his discretion. He does have the discretion, it should be exercised in this case.”

“It is not a demand…(We ask) that the Agong use his discretion not to dissolve Parliament.”

Visvanathan added that he was confident that the Agong was not going to allow Parliament to be dissolved without electoral reforms being put into place first.

Petition launched

During the press conference, an online petition (www.petisyenrakyat.tk)

calling for free and fair elections was also announced.

Citing Article 40(2)(b) of the Federal Constitution, the petition said that the king had absolute discretion to withhold consent to a request to dissolve Parliament.

Rosni said that the petition would “strengthen the respectability and the position of the Agong”.

Adding that it was her family who came up with the idea for such a petition, she said the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) on electoral reforms needed to finish its work.

This work, she added, included recommendations that would be approved by Parliament in a future sitting.

Ooi meanwhile said all eight demands of Bersih 2.0 must be fulfilled before the election is called.

“The power given to the king under the constitution to refuse to consent to the dissolution of Parliament, if so requested, is a power to be exercised for the well-being of the rakyat,” she said.

Visvanathan however evaded queries about the group’s possible link to the Bersih 2.0 coalition, headed by Ambiga Sreenevasan.

“Let’s just say we are Malaysians doing this for Malaysians,” he said.