The Star, Wednesday September 26, 2012
KUALA LUMPUR: The Bersih movement had received funds from the George Soros-linked Open Society Foundation only once, which was for an electoral delineation project last year, said Bersih chairman Datuk S. Ambiga.The group is now “fully supported” by Malaysians, she told a press conference here yesterday.
Present were representatives from five other non-governmental groups the Centre for Independent Journalism, Lawyers for Liberty, Merdeka Centre, Southeast Centre for E-Media and Suaram.
Ambiga said the Open Society promoted democracy and there was “nothing wrong” receiving funds from it.
“All these about him being responsible for the (1997/98 Asian economy) collapse should be looked at again,” she said, in an apparent reference to a report in an English newspaper that blamed Soros for wrecking the Malaysian economy in 1997/98 through currency speculation.
Ambiga said there were many sides to the story, with some saying that locals not Soros were responsible for it.
Ambiga said another English daily had written a “one-sided and irresponsible” report that two global funders and nine organisations were part of a “plot to destabilise the Government”. She has demanded an apology from the paper within 48 hours.
In a statement released at the end of the press conference, Bersih and the other groups claimed that the report in the daily was a crude attack on civil society in Malaysia.
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