Vast majority of Malaysians rejected Bersih and PPBM - Salleh

The vast majority of Malaysians have rejected the hypocrisy of Bersih and Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad's Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM), said Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Seri Dr Salleh Said Keruak.

Based on the turnout for Bersih 5 rally today, Salleh said it was a serious setback for Dr Mahathir and his new party, the junior partner in the DAP-led Pakatan Harapan coalition.

He said the creation of Dr Mahathir's new party was supposed to bring masses of new Malay supporters to Pakatan and Bersih 5.

"Instead, those marching today were only about three per cent of last year's Bersih rally. Namely, 15,500 today compared to the 500,000 Bersih claimed last year.

"Even if you take the figure supplied by Malaysiakini, today's total was no higher than 41,000 – less than 10 per cent of the figure Bersih claimed last year," he said in a statement here tonight.

Salleh said that the result of Dr Mahathir and his cronies joining Bersih had seen the turnout dropped by nearly 97 per cent.

"Malays see through his selfish agenda and refused to attend. And the thousands of Chinese Malaysians who attended Bersih last year are so disgusted that Mahathir is involved, they stayed at home," he said.

Salleh also said that the vast majority of Malaysians could see that PPBM was a party of has-beens and failures.

"Created only out of Mahathir's desperation for his son to become prime minister after UMNO rejected him," he said.

The minister said democracy was now firmly entrenched in Malaysia.

"It cannot be overrun on the whims of one old man who has admitted to being a dictator when in power," he added. --Bernama