Cabinet orders review of Assembly Bill to pre-empt another Najib fiasco?

In a bid to damage control, it appears that Prime Minister Najib Razak has back-tracked on the Peaceful Assembly Bill, heavily condemned by civil society groups as making Malaysia worse than Myanmar in terms of civil liberties and democratic space.

Minister in the PM's Department Nazri Aziz was picked to be the scape-goat, while the already-weakened Najib was shielded, as the political price for the latest fiasco may turn out to be too much for him to survive.

Pinch of salt

According to unconfirmed reports from the evening Chinese dailies, the Cabinet ordered Nazri to review and amend the Bill, which consists of a list of prohibitive provisions, making it even more difficult for Malaysians to gather and speak their minds on issues that perturbed them.

"Until this is officially confirmed, I would take it with a pinch of salt. But certainly it would be the wisest thing for BN to do. The thing is how do they save Najib's neck in the process? He is already in deep trouble with his popularity ratings dropping after the July 9 Bersih rally and he pulls another such stunt. To claim that he didn't know about the Bill and was overseas when Nazri tabled it is just too ridiculous," PKR vice president Tian Chua told Malaysia Chronicle.

"Najib would have vetted a copy before giving Nazri the green light. This together with the ISA and abolition of the Emergency laws were supposed to be his legacy, so how could he not know about them, especially when he and his cousim Hishammuddin (Hussein the Home Minister) have been defending the Bill. This 'leak' is probably meant to test public reaction and it shows how weak the Najib administration has become due to his blunders one after another."

Sharp U-turn

Indeed, Najib had a day ago in Parliament declared that his Peaceful Assembly Bill was "revolutionary" and a "giant leap". But with the Bar Council beng the latest to organize a protest, it looks like Najib can't leap away fast enough.

According to the Chinese newspapers, Najib ordered Nazri to amend the Bill, speculating that the number of days notice to be given to the police be slashed from 30 to 10, which is still higher than the 5 days notice Myanmar citizens are required to give their authorities before gathering together in a public place.

"It is not a piece of legislation which we, as lawyers, can watch enter our statute books without standing up against it. It is not a piece of legislation that we want future generations to inherit, without us walking, and spending every ounce of our energy to oppose. If this piece of legislation makes it to the statute books, future generations will inherit a nation that is far from modern and progressive," Bar Council president Lim Chee Wee had said on Friday.

“It is shameful that Burma can propose a far more democratic law than us. It is a terrible insult to Malaysians because we were promised more democracy, but now it is the opposite,” Bersih chief Ambiga Sreenevasan, a prominent lawyer and former Bar Council chief, had also said.

"There is no proper guarantee, this bill gives absolute powers to the police, with which the appeal rests with the minister. This is not democratic,” Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim had told reporters. He later led the Pakatan Rakyat MPs into opposing the Bill in Parliament.

BN needs the Bill to stifle dissent

Meanwhile, PKR Youth chief Shamsul Iskandar is convinced the Umno-BN will push through the Bill at all costs so as to be able to crackdown on any dissent that may follow the 13th general election, widely expected to be held early next year.

"They know Bersih 3.0 will happen, that is why they want to have this law,” Shamsul told his party congress on Friday, referring to the marches for free and fair elections that drew tens of thousands to the streets of Kuala Lumpur in 2007 and July 9 this year.

“If they restrict us, if there is even one instance of cheating, we will use the streets. Lupakan pilihanraya, kita guna jalanraya (forget elections, we use the streets)."

Malaysia Chronicle