Lawyers: Cops can't 'ban' event under PAA

The Peaceful Assembly Act 2012 (PAA) does not provide the police the powers to stop any assembly, several legal experts told Malaysiakini.

"Under the law you have to give a 10-day notice and also comply with the requirements of the PAA. That is the law.

"(But) the Act does not provide for the police to say yay or nay to an assembly," said lawyer Andrew Khoo.

Fellow lawyers New Sin Yew and Syahredzan Johan concurred.

Recently, the police courted flak for rejecting the the notice by the organisers of a debate between former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Tourism and Culture Minister Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz.

The police claim that the organisers did not provide the notice 10 days in advance and that the venue - the Sultan Azlan Shah Mara Junior Science College - was a prohibited location under the PAA.

The debate would now be held on April 7 at the office of Malay daily Sinar Harian. This too would require a notice to the police, said inspector-general of police Khalid Abu Bakar.

No such thing as 'police permit'

The lawyers believed that this interpretation of the PAA would have far reaching implications.

"Lectures, forums, debates, as long as open to the public would all fall under the ambit of PAA even if it is held in a private venue.

"Consequentially, the organisers of such events would be required to provide notice under Section 9(1) of the PAA when there is in fact no need for this," New said.

Syahredzan opined that the failure to provide notification to the police does not render an assembly unlawful or illegal as this was no longer law after the enactment of the PAA.

"The requirement is now to give notification, and if not given, then the organisers may be committing an offence, but that does not mean the police can stop the event.

"There is no such thing as a police permit anymore under the PAA," he said.

Similarly, Khoo said that although the police may not have the power to stop an assembly, they can take action against organisers afterwards for violating the PAA.

"If there are transgressions of the law (related to an assembly), these can be dealt with after the assembly," he said.

All lectures are assemblies too

However, Syahredzan said that in the case of the debate being held in MRSM, the police does have the power to stop that event, as it is clearly stated in the PAA that schools are one of the prohibited places for an assembly.

"Yes, if it is a prohibited place then of course, you can't have an assembly at a prohibited place.

"If that is the reason why they (the police) have rejected the notice, then it will be right, because a school is a prohibited place," he said.

Though New agreed with this, he said the problem with the PAA is that it is so broad that all types of events are considered a public assembly.

"I think this Mahathir-Nazri debate illustrates the problems with the PAA.

"Assume a public school decides to hold a public lecture. They cannot do so at their own premise regardless of whether they give notice to the police because it is a prohibited place under the PAA," he said.

Khoo also pointed out the same observation about the issues with the PAA, saying that no assembly can be held at a school ever, even if it is a peaceful assembly, if the PAA is to be read strictly.

"True, in the schedule there are a list of restricted places and one of them is a school, but let's then be clear, if you want to be so pedantic or legalistic about that, then no meeting can take place in a school," he said.- Mkini