November 28, 2011
www.malaysiakini.com
Open Letter from President, Malaysian Bar Council to Members of Parliament
"The Malaysian Bar is unaffected which any try to umpire the fundamental liberty on trial underneath the Federal Constitution contingency usually be finished after due conference with all stakeholders, together with antithesis parliamentarians as well as polite society groups."Lim Chee Wee, President, Malaysian Bar Council
Dear Wakil Rakyat,
You might have heard which the Malaysian Bar opposes the Peaceful Assembly Bill 2011 ("PA 2011") on the drift which it imposes unreasonable as well as disproportionate fetters on the leisure of assembly which is on trial underneath the Federal Constitution.
There have been supplies in PA 2011 which have been far some-more restrictive than the stream law, such as the banning of "street protests" (assemblies in suit or processions) as well as the unlimited powers vested in the police to foreordain the time, date, place as well as conduct of an assembly.
There have been also supplies in PA 2011 which have been simply illogical. As an example, nonetheless Police do not need to be told of the religious assembly, such an assembly cannot be hold during the place of worship.
Furthermore, the chairman vital within 50 metres of the kindergarten or propagandize cannot hold an open residence ! for the festival, the wake way or the wedding reception.
The Prime Minister, in his Malaysia Day speech on Sep 15, 2011, betrothed the Rakyat of the following:
I often opine which prolonged gone is the era in which the supervision knows everything as well as claims monopoly over wisdom. . . .
The supervision will also review Section twenty-seven of the Police Act 1967, receiving into care Article 10 of the Federal Constitution regarding leisure of assembly as well as so as to be in line with international norms on the same matter. . . . (emphasis added)
Be confident which it is the strength as well as not the debility for us to place the certitude in the Malaysian people's comprehension to have decisions which will shape the trail of their own future. . . .
It is absolutely clear which the steps we just voiced have been none other than early initiatives of an organized as well as graceful domestic transformation.
It stands as the consequential as well as most needed element to the initiatives of mercantile mutation as well as open display which the supervision has summarized as well as implemented for over dual years in the effort to pioneer the modern as well as on-going nation. . . .
In closing, we wish to emphasize which free of any suspicion as well as doubt, the Malaysia which we all mental condition of as well as have been in the process of creating is the Malaysia which practices [sic] the organic as well as inclusive democracy where open assent as well as wealth is recorded in suitability with the leverage of the constitution, rule of law as well as apply oneself for simple tellurian rights as well as particular rights.
'Outrageous to prohibit processions'
PA 2011 is conjunction uncha! nging wi th "international norms", nor "in suitability 
with the leverage of the Constitution, rule of law as well as apply oneself for simple tellurian rights as well as particular rights". Instead, the Bill will take us serve away from being "a modern as well as on-going nation".
It is vast which assemblies in suit have been prohibited. Assemblies in suit provide the demonstrators with the wider assembly as well as greater visibility, in order for others to see as well as listen to the cause or protest giving rise to the gathering.
Assemblies in suit has been described as "a potent process of expression as well as is the usual phenomenon in democratic societies"[1].
History is full with peaceful assemblies in motion, which were agents of shift as well as of good.
Processions led to nation's founding
On Feb 27, 1946 Onn Jaafar, initial father of UMNO as well as the grandfather of the benefaction Minister for Home Affairs, led the way of 15,000 individuals to protest the investiture of the Malayan Union, which disregarded the interests of the Malay Rulers as well as the Malays.
This was the initial of the array of processions which successfully opposed the Malayan Union, as well as later led to the nation's independence.
On Feb 27, 2008, the then-Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi led 20,000 people in the one-kilometre way from the Batu Pahat UMNO bureau to the track to commemorate this rally.
There have been other processions calling for the extermination of the Internal Security Act 1960, rights of minoriti! es as we ll as electoral reforms.
For the Malaysian Bar, we organized the Walk for Justice, which was hold on Sep 26, 2007, to call for the royal commission to investigate the VK Lingam video shave as well as the investiture of the Judicial Appointments Commission, both of which were subsequently set up by the government.
The benefaction breach of way robs the rakyat of the right which right away exists underneath Section twenty-seven of the Police Act, which regulates "assemblies, meetings as well as processions".
Elsewhere, history is full of assorted peaceful processions led by Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr as well as Nelson Mandela, to name but the few, which brought an finish to rough laws, policies as well as regimes.
It is mocking which the supervision right away wants to prohibit the very processions which led to the initial of the nation, as well as others which moved the budding apportion to guarantee legislative reforms.
These betrothed reforms right away strike back during the very demonstrations which catalysed them.The Malaysian Bar is steadfast in the mount as well as integrity which PA 2011, in the stream form, contingency not turn law.
The Malaysian Bar is unaffected which any try to umpire the fundamental liberty on trial underneath the Federal Constitution contingency usually be finished after due conference with all stakeholders, together with antithesis parliamentarians as well as polite society groups.
No Other Choice
To this end, the Malaysian Bar has proposed an pick check to be considered, as well as calls for PA 2011 to be remitted to the parliamentary select cabinet for consideration.
At the second reading of PA 2011, we ask which you, as the wakil rakyat, await the call.
It is not an deceit to say which tomorrow, we will hold the liberty of the rakyat in your hands. We ask which we provide it with the deference it deserves.
Now, some-more than ever, we contingency remember which we were elected as the representative of the people, to carry out responsibilities as the 'wakil rakyat'.
Please do not put blind obedience to celebration as well as partisanship prior to your duties as the menial of the people. The rakyat should not be done to humour the consequences of celebration politics. PA 2011 is an unjust law, being done in unjustified haste, which has received the defamation of the Rakyat.
There can be no other choice.
Do not pass PA 2011. Support the pick check as well as the call for the Parliamentary Select Committee.
Yours faithfully,
Lim Chee Wee
President
Malaysian Bar
[1] Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal in Leung Kwok Hung & Ors v Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (FACC Nos. 1 & 2 of 2005, during para. 3).
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