Malaysia: More Arrested Before Planned Rally · Global Voices
Jerrenn Lam

More people have now been arrested for supporting the Bersih 2.0 rally that is planned for the 9 July, 2011.
An East Malaysian opposition leader, Christina Liew, posted on her blog that seven people were arrested for wearing Bersih yellow T-shirts and even normal clothing. According to her:
7 Pakatan Rakyat youth having breakfast at a Kedai Kopi in Asia City, 60 to 70 police came and arrested them. Out of 7, 3 wore yellow sport t shirt, 1 wore bersih tee shirt, remaining 3 wore normal shirt (baju biasa)
There was also a video that Liew posted on her blog, where she talked about the arrest of the people:
In an update, she said that they have been released on condition that they will have to report to the police on the 9 July.
Online news website Malaysiakini also carried reports of arrests of state assemblymen, and also reported that as of the 1 July, 121 people have been arrested. It also reported that the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) have instructed television and radio stations to ‘demonise’ the rally.
Furthermore, leading English daily The Star reported that the MCMC has stated that it will shut down any websites that ‘promote or help in organising the July 9 rally’.
As of July 3, another six people were arrested according to Malaysiakini.
A video has also surfaced on YouTube that is becoming more and more popular, that filmed the arrest of the first 14 people arrested which was cited in the previous Global Voices report:
There is also a video claiming to be Bersih's theme song, using footage from the 2007 Bersih rally to Maher Zain's Freedom:
The Bersih Twitter account has been very active, and has almost 5,000 followers. Among some of the tweets involving Bersih 2.0 are:
@40square: In a real democracy peaceful marches are allowed
@winnielwn: @bersih2 is about FAIR and CLEAN election. What the heck has made u to arrest so many ppl?
@jakangboo: #Bersih is not about BN vs PR; malay vs non-malay. We, the citizen of Malaysia just want free, fair n transparent govmt.
@mariachin: Dark day for justice. Najib dashed all hopes of his 1 Malaysia Transformation programme by declaring Bersih 2.0 illegal
The Prime Minister’s Twitter account has no mention of the incident. On Facebook, the Bersih 2.0 page has gained nearly 40,000 ‘Likes’.
There is also a news report announcing that Amnesty International has called for the government to allow the rally to continue.
Thumbnail image shows man holding his Bersih T-shirt at the last rally in November 2007. Photo by Flickr user wormy lau (CC BY-NC 2.0).