A coalition of civil society groups says its questions blur the line between peaceful rallies and riots.
Sekretariat Himpun urged the government to immediately cancel the study, accusing it of bias in its questions.
Its spokesman, Azura Nasron, said the questions, sent to civil society groups, did not clearly distinguish between peaceful assemblies and riots.
“(The question framework) may normalise preventive and punitive approaches that conflict with human rights standards.
“Continuing this study will only strengthen the narrative that freedom of assembly is a threat, not a constitutional right,” Azura, who is also the executive director of Suara Rakyat Malaysia, said at a press conference at Suaram’s headquarters here today.
She called on the government to disclose the study’s true purpose, its sponsors, and how the researchers and institutions involved were selected.
Azura said the government should speed up amendments to the Peaceful Assembly Act (PAA) 2012, and set a clear timeline.
She said the coalition had yet to receive any commitment or official reply on the proposed amendments since meeting home minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail in September last year.
“This ongoing delay reflects a political failure to carry out long-promised reforms, even though the PAA has been shown to contain many provisions that conflict with the principles of peaceful assembly,” she said.
On Oct 24, the home ministry began a study on laws related to handling riots, with the aid of the Institute of Public Security Malaysia and researchers from public universities led by Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. - FMT
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