Najib's Peaceful Assembly Bill another con job, slams Surendran

The government tabled the Peaceful Assembly Bill 2011 in parliament this morning. It is with shock and disbelief that the nation received news of the details of the Bill.

This Bill has made meaningless the rakyat's right to freedom of assembly, in blatant breach of Article 10(1)(b) of the Federal Constitution. In short, the Bill itself is unconstitutional. From the particulars it is clear that the real intention of Najib and his government is to make it as difficult and burdensome as possible for the rakyat to peacefully assemble.

Worse off than before

We are now indisputably worse off than we were under the provisions of the Police Act 1967. Our objections are as follows:

1) The Bill outlaws street protests. This is unconstitutional as it is in breach of Article 10 of the Federal Constitution. This is not a 'reasonable restriction', but a restriction that renders nugatory the right to peacefully assemble. There is no reason why street protests should be outlawed; it is the job of the police upon notification to manage traffic and other matters. In any event, any traffic congestion in recent protests has been caused by the police themselves by putting up unnecessary road-blocks. Street protests are a normal, harmless and integral part of any functioning democracy. There is no such restriction in the laws of other democratic countries such as UK, US, Australia, Canada, Finland or South Africa. It is completely inconsistent with international norms and practices as well as the UDHR. Surprisingly, the government has been claiming that they would be adopting best practices from some of these other countries. This was clearly another lie.

2) The bill imposes a 30 day advance notice to authorIties prior to holding an assembly. This is an onerous and unnecessary requirement intended to make it as difficult as possible for the rakyat to convene any assembly. If the issue is current and of urgency, are we to wait for a month before holding an assembly? Must we wait a month if we want to gather to handover a memorandum to the government? In the UK under the Public Order Act 1986 only a six day notice is required. In Western Australia it is 4 days, in South Africa 7 days and in Finland it is only 6 hours!

3) Section 8 which allows the IGP to take " such measures as he deems necessary" is widely couched and open to abuse. It grants new untramelled powers to the police vis-a-vis public assemblies. Any conditions the police may be allowed to impose must be minimal, limited and clearly spelled out in the Bill.

4) Fines of up to RM20,000 for non-compliance are excessive and calculated to frighten and discourage those who wish to assemble.

Restriction of Assembly Bill

This Bill should have been titled the 'Restriction of Assembly Bill' ! It has rendered worthless the people's right to peacefully assemble. Najib perpertrated a massive confidence trick upon the rakyat when he promised reform of the right to assemble on Malaysia day this year.

This Bill is a joke in absolute bad taste and will make our country the laughing-stock of the world. BN and Najib are truly practicing 'Orwellian' doublespeak. When they said freedom of assembly, they meant the complete opposite.

This ridiculous Bill which makes mockery of our democratic values must be immediatley withdrawn. Instead, the Police Act must be amended to remove the permit requirement and replace it with a simple notifiication, as is the practice in other democratic nations.

N SURENDRAN IS VICE PRESIDENT OF PARTI KEADILAN RAKYAT