Najib slams Bersil

Kuala Lumpur- A day after the police and demonstrators clashed on the streets of Malaysia's captial, the country's Prime Minster Najib Razak yesterday ridiculed and dismissed the impact of Saturday's Bersih rally. In a fiery speech in front of $6,000 UMNO members, non-gov-ernment organisations (NGOs) and martial art (silat) groups, Mr Najib mocked the turnout of the rally, claiming that UMNO would have outnumbered Bersih if they had wanted to protest on the streets. He said: ''Don't doubt our strength. UMNO has 3 millon members If we gather 1 million members, it is more than enough. We can conquer Kuala Lumpur. If we want to create chaos, we can. But we upload the laws of Malaysia, we like peace.'' Police estimates put the number of people who attended at around 6,000, while Bersih claimed some 50,000 turned up despite a city-wide lockeddown by the authori-ties. Mr Najib accused the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) of orchestrating the rally in a calculated move to ensure opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim becomes Prime Minster. Alluding to Mr Anwar, Mr Najib said: "He knows that if he does not do anything, we (the Barisan Nasional) will win in the 13th gerneral election. This is the last chance, they will do everything, good or bad.'' Mr Najib told reporters later that the gathering yesterday at the putra world trade center was not a show of force but to demonstrate the strength of the "silent majority'' and that this group was with the government. ''This is just a part of UMNO's strength. we gathered 6,000 members here today in a short amount of thime... they are waiting for a signal, they're willing to do anything,'' Mr Najib said. Mr Najib said the organiser of the Bersih illegal rally and the opposition had wanted to portray Malaysia's government as undemocratic in the eyes of the world. The organiser of the rally had also gone back on their word, he said, adding that they agreed at fiirst to abide by the advice of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong and call off the illegal rally but they went ahead with it. Said Mr Najib: ''They said they wanted to hold a peaceful rally. If the police had not monitored it, it would not have been peaceful.'' In an editorial ''The game is over, time for everybody to move on'', Malaysian newspaper The Star questioned whether there was a ''better way of putting across the message, cause or demand for a clean general election? '' The editorial added: ''Whether or not a street demonstration should be the last resort for aggrieved parties, it should seldom, if ever, be the first.'' The New Straits Times also expressed it disapproval of the rally, declaring that there was ''no winner in this madness''. Speaking to reporter at a sepatrate event, Mr Najib said UMNO and the Barisam National were not afraid of facing a clean and fair election. He reiterated that the gov-ernment would ensure that every election was transparent. Said Mr Najib: ''if there are other issues, the rally organisers can discuss with the Election Commission and the government. But illegal rallies and street demonstrations are out of the question.'' The demonstration saw 1,667 people arrested by the police. All were freed yesterday without being charged. One person died after suffering a heart attrack. But the fam-ily of Mr Baharuddin Ahmad, 56, blamed his death on a ''deliberate act of cruelty'' by the police.