Rights group Suaram executive director Sevan Doraisamy said today the people have a right to meet their elected lawmakers without being subjected to "unnecessary investigations" over the right to peaceful assembly.
Sevan said this in urging the current administration to review designated gathering areas under the Peaceful Assembly Act 2012 (PAA), including one that is nearest to the Parliament building in Kuala Lumpur - a park at Taman Tugu.
"Under the PAA, there are many areas that need to be empowered and amended, for example, the designated areas which are not practical at all.
"One of the designated places for a peaceful assembly is near the Taman Tugu, but that is not a public place. It is a secluded area, so for the public to deliver a message we can't go there," Sevan told reporters outside the Dang Wangi police station today.
Sevan and four others - Suaram coordinators Azura Nasron and Wong Yan Ke, PSM deputy chairperson S Arutchelvan and Ranjith Kumar, a family member of a Security Offences (Special Measures) Act (Sosma) detainee - were summoned to have their statements recorded under Section 9(5) of the PAA for their participation in a gathering outside Parliament on Dec 20 to submit a memorandum requesting bail for Sosma detainees and for the legislation to be reviewed.
The memorandum was received by an aide to Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution who, during his press conference at Bukit Aman with Inspector-General of Police Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani. indicated that he has no intention of reviewing Sosma.
Sevan said the group had come to Parliament in response to Saifuddin's remarks and he reiterated their stand against Sosma as a "procedural law" that can be replaced with provisions under the Penal Code.
He also insisted that the people have a right to meet their policymakers and that Parliament must provide space for such meetings or memorandum handovers.
"Don't push us to the streets. We don't have the space to express ourselves and MPs who want to meet the people who voted for them have to also go to the streets.
"These (restrictions under PAA) need to go. The prime minister and home minister must have a proper place in or outside the place where people can gather and hand over a memorandum to them," Sevan said.
Parliament building ‘off limits’
The Parliament building has been off limits for NGOs and members of the public seeking to hold a press conference with MPs or ministers, since July 2013, under a rule introduced by the then-minister in charge of Parliament affairs, Arau MP Shahidan Kassim.
Further, Sevan noted that their gathering outside Parliament was held under close police watch and, as such, there should be no need for further investigations for any decision to press charges against them under the PAA.
"The police recorded the entire event and they have all the evidence for their records to be referred to.
"Why the need to intimidate us, investigate us and waste our time?" he argued.
Similarly, Arutchelvan dismissed the probe on the peaceful assembly as a waste of police resources, starting from the initial police report lodged by the police themselves.
"Go ahead and investigate if there was a real crime, if there's a public complaint, if there's the destruction of public property.
"But if the gathering was held peacefully, there is no need to summon people to have their statements recorded," Arutchelvan said.
The group and their lawyers entered the Dang Wangi police station around 2.30pm and left after about 40 minutes. - Mkini
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