‘Patriot’ also illegal, says Nazri

Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Aziz today confirmed that Umno Youth’s “Patriot” group is an outlawed organisation like Bersih 2.0 and should also be subject to police arrests.

The de facto law minister told The Malaysian Insider that there would be “no double standards” on the matter as under the law, both groups are not registered with the Registrar of Societies (RoS).

“Of course they (Patriot) are illegal. The law is very simple. In this country, if you want to create an association and be recognised as one, you have to register with the RoS,” Nazri (picture)said when contacted.

As Patriot is still an unregistered body, he added, its members must be detained if they were to hold rallies or functions under its name.

“The police can arrest them, yes. There is no double standards on that. Patriot is not registered and cannot do anything under that name,” he confirmed.

The government has declared Bersih 2.0, a loose coalition of 62 non-governmental organisations, an illegal body as it is not registered with the RoS.

File photo of Umno Youth members in Patriot T-shirts taken last month.

The police have also embarked on a nationwide operation to arrest all those with pro-Bersih 2.0 materials, declaring yesterday that protestors found with such paraphernalia during the coalition’s planned rally this Saturday would also be hauled in.

The Cabinet has also decided that any application from Bersih 2.0 for its stadium rally would be rejected due to its status as an outlawed outfit.

But when asked during a press conference yesterday if the police would also take similar action against Patriot supporters, Deputy Inspector-General of Police Datuk Khalid Abu Bakar declined to answer, saying the question should not be posed to him.

“What we do is in accordance with the law. Like I said, Bersih has been gazetted as an illegal organisation. So we have to take action.

“Why Patriot has not been declared illegal, do not ask me. We only carry out our orders and we are enforcers of the law,” he said.

Umno Youth had initially planned to hold its own rally this Saturday but called off its plans following the Yang di-Pertuan Agong’s call last Sunday.

Its members have also been accused of holding a demonstration outside PKR’s headquarters in Tropicana in Petaling Jaya last Monday, allegedly threatening to torch the building if Bersih refuses to call off its rally.