Maria, the Bersih 2.0 chairperson, said if the NGO was indeed trying to overthrow the government via a revolution, it would not have the support it was getting from the public.

She was commenting on Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s claim that there were some organisations which had been influenced by the idea of the “Color Movement”. He named Bersih 2.0, Suaram, the Bar Council, Malaysiakini and Sarawak Report as being among them.

The Color Movement, he said at the Umno assembly, wanted to accomplish revolutions without violence by training, planning and developing strategies to oust democratically-elected governments.

Maria said: “I will let the people judge what we have done. If we were trying to start a revolution, the number of people who turned up at our rallies and our recent candle light vigil would have been zero.”

Maria said Bersih had always been transparent about its demands and that neither a revolution nor toppling a government had anything to do with those demands.

“Our agenda is good governance and free and fair elections. Is the government saying that this is not their agenda too?”

FMT also contacted Suaram which said it was aware of the allegations but was not ready to give an immediate comment.

Meanwhile, attempts to reach the Bar Council were unsuccessful.