Bar calls for ‘Freedom of Assembly Act’
Malaysiakini.com
Dec 2, 2006

The Bar Council has recommended that a review be conducted on current enforcement laws, which it describes as curtailing the citizens’ right to assemble.
Two reports were submitted by the Bar Council and the Bar Council Legal Aid Centre Kuala Lumpur pertaining to observations made at October’s public inquiry on police brutality in the ‘Bloody Sunday’ incident.

The reports recommended that several provisions in a variety of acts pertaining to enforcement rules be dropped and that enforcement agencies’ powers be clarified under a new ‘Freedom of Assembly Act’.

Both the council and the centre submitted separate reports yesterday to the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) on their observations made at the public inquiry. .

Bar Council chairperson Yeo Yang Poh said the inquiry calls into focus the importance of the citizens’ right to hold peaceful assemblies and the question of the proper use of force in crowd control situations.

Yeo said that the right to hold peaceful assemblies, as guaranteed under Article 10 of the federal Constitution, has been severely limited by legislation and by the practices of law enforcement officers.

In October, Suhakam held a public inquiry on the incident. Fifty four witnesses, consisting mostly of protesters, testified at the eight-day hearing. The Federal Reserve Unit (FRU), the police’s crowd control unit, dispersed an anti-fuel price hike protest at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre in May.

In an apparently unprovoked move, the police were reported to have turned their water cannons on the gathering crowd before FRU units dispersed protesters by force. Several protestors were subsequently injured. The incident, the starkest example of a clash between policing powers and civilians in recent years, was later dubbed ‘Bloody Sunday’.

At the inquiry, the Bar Council had participated as observers at Suhakam’s request while the council’s Legal Aid Centre acted on behalf of some protesters.

He said that there was a need to strike a better balance between the exercise of the right to assembly and the interest of the government to maintain public order.

Thorough review

“This is out of step with the demands of democracy, and stifled the health contestation of ideas. It is high time that our laws and practices be reviewed in tandem with our aspirations of becoming a developed society,” he said in a statement.

The Bar Council calls for a thorough review of the relevant laws and guidelines relating to the freedom of assembly.

These include the Police Act, the Criminal Procedure Code, the Public Order (Preservation) Act, the Inspector-General’s Standing Orders, the Police Public Order Manual and the Use of Force.

Instead, laws pertaining to the right of peaceful assembly and law enforcement officers’ powers should be clarified and enacted in a ‘Freedom of Assembly Act’.

He hoped the government would undertake such a review in a transparent manner by involving all stakeholders including the police, local authorities, legislators, NGOs, Suhakam, the Bar Council and civil societies.

He said enforcement officers should be given more effective ‘human rights education’.

The Bar Council reiterated their support for the setting up of the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC).

It also calls on the government to ratify the international human rights convention, such as the International Convention of Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

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