KUALA LUMPUR, June 28 — Federal Territory Umno Youth chief Rizalman Mokhtar justified today the wing’s mob-like behaviour outside PKR’s headquarters last night as the only way to ensure its political foe gets the message that it will not tolerate any threats to its leadership.
Hundreds of Umno Youth members — dressed in the red T-shirts emblazoned with the words “Patriot” which were distributed yesterday at the launch of the wing’s Kelab Putera 1 Malaysia — were captured on video racing noisily on motorcycles around the PKR office in Petaling Jaya’s Merchant Square late last night, ahead of the July 9 Bersih rally.
They arrived at the office block, just a few doors away from the Tropicana police station, claiming that a death threat sent to Khairy recently came from the opposition party, which denied the allegation.
“We know PKR leaders are behind the death threat to our Youth chief. That’s why we want to send the message, ‘Don’t ever play with us’,” Rizalman told The Malaysian Insider when contacted this morning.
The video of the mob gathering at PKR headquarters last night has been uploaded online to YouTube. Some quarters have likened the motorcyclists’ actions to “rempits” or street hooligans.
Rizalman did not deny the comparisons that have cast a shadow on the wing ahead of its “peaceful” counter Bersih rally.
Instead, he defended the motorcyclists’ actions as the only way to drive home Umno Youth’s message that it was deadly serious about death threats targeting its leadership.
“I don’t think we have any other way. If we do it the proper way, this kind of group, it’s very hard to discuss with them. They always politicise things,” he said, referring to PKR.
“This is the maximum level to show we are serious,” he added.
Rizalman repeated his statement yesterday that if the electoral reform march by civil society, which PKR publicly supports, is not called off, then Umno Youth too will carry out its own march.
The first Bersih rally in 2007 saw up to 50,000 people take to the streets of Kuala Lumpur before they were dispersed by police armed with tear gas and water cannons.
The demonstration has been partly credited for Pakatan Rakyat’s record gains in Election 2008, where the opposition pact swept to power in five states and won 82 parliamentary seats.
However, counter rallies are being planned by both Perkasa and Umno Youth. The latter group has applied for a permit to march despite the government insisting it will not issue any permits for gatherings in the city on July 9.
