KUALA LUMPUR, June 13 — Prominent lawyer-activist Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan will be taking questions from the public in an online chat hosted by Yahoo! Malaysia at 3pm tomorrow.
The award-winning former president of the Malaysian Bar is leading an 84-member civil society movement called Bersih, which has been lobbying Putrajaya for cleaner and fairer elections for the past two years ahead of key national polls that could see a change of government from the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) to the fledgling Pakatan Rakyat (PR).
“I’m taking part in this event so that the public can have direct access to me with their questions,” Ambiga told the search engine.
“I hope to be able to reach out to as many people as possible and, in particular, to respond as best I can to issues that are troubling them,” Yahoo! Malaysia quoted her as saying.
Those with questions for Ambiga may submit them by typing them out during the chat at http://my.news.yahoo.com, or by sending them to Yahoo! Malaysia’s Facebook page before 3pm tomorrow.
Ambiga, who co-chairs Bersih with national laureate Datuk A. Samad Said, is currently being sued by the federal government in an unprecedented civil court case initiated against Bersih leaders for damages to public property worth RM122,000.
The 55-year-old has also been the target of hate groups in the last two years, with some right-wing partisan NGOs asking that the government strip her of her citizenship and some BN ministers accusing her of trying to topple the ruling government from power in the latest street rally last month.
Ambiga has called for Malaysians to refocus on Bersih’s eight demands amid much finger-pointing after the April 28 rally ended in violence with the authorities accusing her of attempting to spearhead a coup, a charge she has vehemently denied.
The electoral watchdog wants the government to rid the electoral roll of dead voters and other dubious names and enforce a minimum campaign period of 21 days ahead of the 13th general elections. Bersih has also lobbied for political parties to be given free and fair media play and public institutions to be strengthened to stop a seeming rise in corruption and bring an end to dirty politics.
She had led tens of thousands of demonstrators in two public rallies for electoral reform in the national capital — the first on July 9 last year and more recently on April 28 — which turned violent following clashes with the authorities. However, similar rallies held elsewhere around the country, and the world, took place peacefully.
Yahoo! Malaysia has previously hosted public chats with opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin and even popular pop artiste Datuk Siti Nurhaliza.
For further details on Ambiga’s chat session, check out Yahoo! Malaysia’s website:
http://my.news.yahoo.com/bersih-s-s--ambiga-in-the-line-of-fire.html.
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