Mohmad Salleh

Bersih co-chairperson Ambiga Sreenevasan has denied she lost control of the crowd during the April 28 Bersih 3.0 rally, putting the blame on the police instead.

Ambiga  told the Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) public inquiry today that she had control of the crowd, although few people could hear her call to disperse about 2.40pm that day.

This was because, she said, despite a breakdown in mobile phone communications and her hailer being not loud enough, the word was passed, mouth-to-mouth, through the Unit Amal personnel who had heard it.

Ambiga (left) believes that – if the LRT service continued operating and given time – the participants would have been able to disperse peacefully in about an hour.

However, she said, her control was lost once police, about 3pm, started firing tear gas and water cannons.

“You (the police) created this situation, you bring it back under control. Don’t say it is my job now,” she said.

The former Bar Council president was responding to a question from the Suhakam inquiry panel, led by commissioner Khaw Lake Tee, on whether she had lost control of the crowd.

This was in view of the fact that the barricades around Dataran Merdeka were breached despite Ambiga saying that it wouldn’t, and that they crowd did not appear responsive to her call to disperse.

“There will always those who act outside your guidelines, outside the law, et cetera.

“We have made it clear. If anyone breaches the law, the police should take action. We have always said that and that must be true of any gathering…

“The organiser can only be responsible for those following their guidelines. (For) those outside that, police have to take action,” she said.

However, she said the police should only apprehend those who had breached the barricade instead of cracking down on the entire rally.

‘Kill the mosquito, don’t burn the mosquito net’

“So you are saying that they should kill the mosquito instead of burning the mosquito net?” asked Suhakam commissioner Detta Samen.

“Yes. Use a Shieldtox (insecticide), not a nuclear bomb,” Ambiga replied.

Earlier today, during Seputeh MP Teresa Kok’s testimony, she also pointed out that during the recent Green March, some 20,000 protesters were able to disperse peacefully.

Although the Dataran Merdeka was also fenced-up and no one heard any calls to disperse, she highlighted that unlike the Bersih 3.0 rally, there was no heavy police presence and no roadblocks preventing the protesters from leaving.

“You can see that people just disperse after seeing that the leaders had left,” she said.

Testifying later, Ambiga also denied the panel members’ suggestion that her leadership was ‘usurped’ by anyone until tear gas was fired, even by PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim (right).

She explained although it was not pre-planned for Anwar to speak on the truck that she used as a stage, and any member of parliament was welcome to be heard on her stage.

“Leadership means giving instructions. I was the only one who gave instructions.

“He (Anwar) gave a speech, but instructions only came from me,” she said.

During her testimony lasting almost three hours, Ambiga also recounted the vilification and harassment that she and her fellow steering committee members faced in the run-up to the pro-electoral reform rally and its aftermath.

These include being labelled as “Anti-Christ”, being portrayed as a traitor and anti-Islam, and having a string of protests outside her home.

Ambiga was supposed to be the 48th and last witness to testify at the inquiry, which started on July 5 to investigate allegations of human rights abuses during and after the Bersih 3.0 rally.

However, one more session would be called at a later date to hear the testimony of Kuala Lumpur police chief Mohmad Salleh, who was unable to attend the inquiry slated for yesterday.