Umno information chief Shahril Hamdan has voiced concerns over police arresting activists who attended a candlelight vigil for Covid-19 deaths last night.
He said while the law is the law, its application has been uneven.
"It just doesn't sit right that politicians are openly having gatherings, but people having vigils are arrested.
"I understand that the sections under which they were compounded are what the police call seizable offences but the arrests last night didn't happen in a vacuum.
"It happened in a context of other gatherings and house visits that everyone knows about," Shahril told Malaysiakini.
Police last night detained 31 activists holding a vigil at Dataran Merdeka to remember the 13,480 Covid-19 deaths thus far.
The activists were also fined RM2,000 each - totalling RM62,000.
Shahril (above) empathised with the police, whom he said had been working overtime during the pandemic and may feel frustrated at seeing SOP breaches.
However, he said the issue is how different consequences are being applied to different sets of people.
Commenting further, Shahril said that once Covid-19 is under control, the future government should review the Peaceful Assembly Act to keep up with the times.
"One assumes gatherings and assemblies will continue whoever is in power, and surely the answer can't be to take different measures for different groups of people.
"I can understand different kinds of consequences for different types of actions. But this was a vigil," he said,
A new government is expected to be installed soon after the one led by Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin collapsed.
Muhyiddin's resignation had led to a flurry of politician meetings and gatherings in order to secure the numbers needed to form a government. - Mkini
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