Surendran: BN's suit against Ambiga legally defective, must be withdrawn

I refer to the BN government's civil suit for damages against Bersih Chairperson Datuk Ambiga Sreenivasan and 9 others under section 6(2)(g) of the Peaceful Assembly Act 2012. The government's suit is politically motivated, legally unsound and morally wrong.

Section 6(2)(g) and the other provisions of the PAA 2012 do not create any civil right of action arising from any breach of the provisions of the Act. As such, the government's suit has no legal basis whatsoever.

The intent of the PAA was to facilitate and govern the conduct of public assemblies. The PAA cannot be interpreted to impose onerous new statutory duties and civil liabilities on citizens who choose to exercise the right to assemble.

The government's reliance on the PAA to bring civil actions against the rakyat is absurd, unconstitutional and undemocratic. The civil suit is also a serious misuse of government resources and funds by the BN.

Massive fraud

In September last year, the Prime Minister had announced on a nationally televised event that laws relating to public assemblies would be amended to give greater freedom to the rakyat.

Events since then have proven that Najib's announcement was a massive fraud upon the rakyat. The police violence at the Bersih 3.0 rally and the filing of the civil suit proves that Prime Minister Najib Razak never had any intention of allowing Malaysians to freely exercise their right to peacefully assemble.

We call upon Prime Minister Najib and his government to immediately withdraw the civil suit against Ambiga and her co-defendants.The government must also reveal the extent of the involvement of Najib and his cabinet in the decision to file this civil suit using public funds and resources.

N SURENDRAN IS VICE PRESIDENT OF PARTI KEADILAN RAKYAT