
Bersih 2.0’s chairman Maria Chin Abdullah and her three sons are among those who have received death threats and JAG is calling for the authorities to take action. — Picture by Saw Siow Feng, taken from Malay Mail Online.
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 18 — The authorities must take a firm stand on the death threats against civil rights activists that have also widened to include their families if it doesn’t want to be seen as tolerating extremism, a human rights coalition said today.
The Joint Action Group for Gender Equality (JAG) said it was outraged at the death threats against prominent activist Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan, Bersih 2.0’s chairman Maria Chin Abdullah and her three sons, and the electoral watchdog’s committee member Mandeep Karpall, stressing the need for impartial action to be taken.
“JAG calls on the Malaysian government, the Royal Malaysian Police Force, and other agencies to do their duty with conscientiousness and impartiality.
“Members of the Cabinet and political leaders from all parties, regardless of ideology, need to unequivocally condemn the violence and death threats,” the coalition said in statement.
According to JAG, the death threats were spread through a chat application in the form of digitally-altered photos, which depicted a black-clad masked man standing and holding a knife to the throats of six kneeling individuals. Read more