A lawyer says the PAA gives Nazri and Mahathir the right to go ahead with their debate.
PETALING JAYA: A lawyer has questioned the rationale behind Selangor police’s decision to forbid the the much anticipated debate between former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad and Tourism and Culture Minister Nazri Aziz.
Speaking to FMT, New Sin Yew said the Peaceful Assembly Act did not give police the power to prevent events held at private premises.
The organiser of an event needed only the permission of the venue’s owner, he added.
On Saturday, Selangor police told Kumpulan Media Karangkraf, which was organising the Mahathir-Nazri debate, that the permit for the event, given on Friday, had been revoked. The debate was to have taken place on April 7 at the Karangkraf Complex in Shah Alam.
Mahathir and Nazri were set to debate on 1MDB, Bumiputra Malaysia Finance (BMF) and the RM2.6 billion deposited into Prime Minister Najib Razak’s personal bank accounts.
At a press conference yesterday, Selangor deputy police chief Mohd Fuad Abdul Latiff said 18 police reports had been made against the the debate.
He said the people who made the reports were “interested parties” who had the right to object to the debate under the PAA. “They were very concerned for the safety of their families,” he said, adding that police had found out that troublemakers would disrupt the event.
However, New said the objections, whether justified or not, could not be cited as grounds for preventing an assembly at a private venue. Only the owner’s consent was needed, he added.
“So I suggest Nazri and Mahathir should just carry on with the debate because they have the right to assemble and they should exercise that right,” he said. “If the police want to impose conditions, then by all means do so as long as they are reasonable. But under no circumstances should they prevent the assembly from taking place.”
The Karangkraf Complex is located in an industrial area, and the nearest housing estates are two kilometres away. -FMT
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