Pergerakan Pemuda Umno juga mahu menganjurkan satu perhimpunan bagi memperkukuh sistem demokrasi pada 9 Julai ini – hari Himpunan Bersih 2.0.
Bagaimanapun sayap Umno tidak akan menyertai Himpunan Bersih 2.0.
“Pemuda Umno akan menganjurkan perhimpunan pada 9 Julai (ini) demi perkukuh sistem demokrasi. Tak serta Bersih sebab (ia) bawa agenda pembangkang,” kata Ketua Pemuda Umno Khairy Jamaluddin (gambar) menerusi mesej Twitternya petang ini.
Kata beliau perkara tersebut diputuskan pada mesyuarat Exco Pemuda Umno hari ini.
Petang tadi, Timbalan Presiden Umno Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin berkata Himpunan Bersih 2.0 pada Julai ini akan memberi kesan negatif kepada negara dan menyekat pembangunan ekonomi.
Muhyiddin berkata himpunan yang dianjurkan Gabungan Pilihan Raya Bersih dan Adil (Bersih) bukan demokrasi kerana ia hanya disertai sekumpulan kecil.
“Perhimpunan Bersih tidak mewakili keseluruhan rakyat tapi sebilangan kecil sahaja,” katanya.
Perkasa juga mahu mengadakan perhimpunan balas hari yang sama menentang Bersih 2.0.
Pakatan Raktyat dan aktivis parti telah bersedia menggerakkan Himpunan Bersih 2.0, yang mana ia pertama kali diadakan pada 2007 dan dilaporkan kira-kira 50,000 orang telah berkumpul di ibu negara, polis telah menyuraikan perhimpunan itu dengan menyembur gas pemedih mata dan meriam air.
PAS berjanji akan menggerakkan 300,000 peserta tahun ini dan berharap sokongan kepada Pakatan Rakyat pada piliha raya umum ke-13 yang dijangka akan diadakan dalam tahun ini.
The Spring of 2011 will forever be remembered as your moment. You have grabbed the wheel of history and are steering a new course. The rest of the world, myself included, are watching.
I am an Israeli-born American citizen. And I can tell you (and I am sure you already know) that in Israel and America and much of the world your revolutions have stirred up mixed emotions.
Some among us tell us to fear what is happening. They tell us that by tearing down the old regimes in your nations you have opened the door to a takeover by militants who would support violence toward us. They point to every incident of violence or expression of anger toward us as evidence of a threat.
I write this letter because I need you to know that I don’t share their fear. I don’t pretend to know what will happen in your countries. But I do know that when I see what you are doing on the streets of Cairo and Tunis and Tehran and Damascus, fear is not what I feel. Instead, I feel admiration. For your courage, for your dignity, for your audacity.
I am not naïve. I know some among your countrymen may truly hate Israel and America and the West. But I refuse to assume you share that feeling, or that you will be fooled by efforts to distract your revolutions with appeals to old hatreds. The tyrants who have ruled your nations and the would-be dictators seeking to hijack your movements will certainly try to redirect anger toward Israel, America and the West as a path to gain power. But if, as you say and I believe, you truly took to the streets to bring dignity to your own lives, I am confident you won’t be swayed from that goal by tired rhetoric and false threats.
I have this confidence because when I watch your revolution, I don’t see an enemy. You look like someone I would meet in a café or a conference or a classroom. Like someone I would start a business with or approach as a customer. Someone I could find on Facebook or follow on Twitter.
You are people who have succeeded in upending the power of longstanding dictatorships through the power of new tools. Where once the pyramid of power meant information trickled down from the select few on top, now you have flipped the pyramid so that information — and the power it brings — flows down from the broad base of the people. The inverted pyramid is your legacy, and never again will a small handful stand above the many in your lands without being held to account.
And so I want you to know that me, and many more like me, are inspired by what you are doing. We are going to stand beside you. We will continue to support you through what will surely be a long struggle to build a future for yourselves and your countrymen that is based on freedom, democracy, human dignity and peace.
We stand with you because we know the fundamental truth of our moment is that it falls to us to clean up messes left to us by preceding generations. It is a monumental task. But it just may be that we are uniquely suited to it. Your actions have begun to prove that this may be the case.
Let’s acknowledge what we have in common and start trying to work together, rather than focusing on ancient grudges, preconceived notions and a history that serves no one but those who want to control our lives.
If we can do so, then we’ll accomplish things that will change the world. That is the story of the Spring of 2011. That is the story of our generation. It’s a story yet unfinished. I write to you to tell you that you have friends all over the world who are watching you, who are admiring you and who are truly wishing you well.
Embattled Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) will resign, sources confirmed to The Huffington Post, making him the first Congressman whose career was wrecked by indiscretions on Twitter.
Weiner, who mistakenly tweeted a photo of his underwear-clad erection last month and then lied to cover it up, has been under escalating pressure to quit as one embarrassing revelation after another came to light. The New York Times was first to report on Thursday that he had succumbed to that pressure.
Congressional leaders had been slated to meet Thursday to hash out a strategy regarding Weiner’s fate. Most of the House leadership had already called for his resignation, and President Obama made a similar suggestion in an interview Tuesday.
A day after Obama’s interview, Weiner’s wife, Huma Abedin, returned from a weeklong trip to Africa with her boss, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Also on Wednesday, former porn actress Ginger Lee, who had exchanged emails and messages with Weiner, held a bizarre press conference in which she claimed he had urged her to lie about their communication.
A day after Obama’s interview, Weiner’s wife, Huma Abedin, returned from a weeklong trip to Africa with her boss, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Also on Wednesday, former porn actress Ginger Lee, who had exchanged emails and messages with Weiner, held a bizarre press conference in which she claimed he had urged her to lie about their communication.
The congressman had already announced he would be taking a two-week leave from the House for rehab. The combination of family pressure and personal embarrassment apparently became too big a hurdle to overcome. It was recently reported that Abedin is pregnant with the pair’s first child.
“At least the nightmare is over,” one source close to Weiner said.
Another told The Huffington Post that Weiner called Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) Wednesday, informing him of his plans.
Observers noted the decision had to have been extremely hard for Weiner, who defiantly resisted pressure to resign for several weeks, and that the call to Israel came the day Abedin got home.
“Wife comes home and he picks ‘us’ over ‘me’ –- but I’d take away his belt and his shoelaces, just in case,” said Baruch College political scientist Doug Muzzio.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who had been among those trying to push Weiner out, declined to discuss him at her weekly news conference, suggesting it was just her regular update — a statement met with chuckles from reporters who at first thought she was joking.
But she was not.
“if you’re here to ask questions about Congressman Weiner, I won’t be answering any,” Pelosi said.
Weiner is expected to resign during a press conference in New York on Thursday afternoon.
UPDATE 12:03 p.m. – Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) issued the following statement on Weiner’s expected resignation:
“There is life after Congress for Anthony Weiner and I hope he devotes himself to repairing the damage he caused to his personal life.”
UPDATE 1:00 p.m. – House Democrats from New York and neighboring states offered varying opinions regarding whether Weiner should be resigning over the scandal.
“His life and breath was here, outside of his family,” said Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.), who wouldn’t say if he has spoken to Weiner this week.
Turning to a reporter, Pascrell continued, “Just picture yourself if they took that pencil and pad away from you and said, ‘Because of this thing, you didn’t break any laws, you can’t write anymore. You have to find something else to do.’ You know, it’s an empty feeling.”
“A lot of folks that knew him, we have empty feelings. But we get up and do the job that we’re paid for,” he said.
Democratic Congressional Committee Chairman Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) also wouldn’t comment on his conversations with Weiner and said he would have more to say after Weiner’s press conference. But Israel said his position on the matter has been clear all long.
“I’ve had repeated conversations with Congressman Weiner in which I expressed my strong feelings that he should resign for the good of himself, his family, Members of Congress and the country,” he said.
Rep. Rob Andrews (D-N.J.) commended party leaders for the way they have dealt with the situation and concurred that Weiner is doing the right thing by stepping down.
“I think our leadership handled this very well, and if Mr. Weiner is resigning I think he ultimately handled it well as well,” he said.
A Democratic leadership aide summed up the ordeal as “a political witch hunt” but suggested that Weiner’s resignation won’t be a huge blow for the party in the long run.
Losing Weiner is “not that big of a deal, but he was good,” said the aide. “Not going to affect control of the House.”
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