May 3, 2012
Peaceful Assembly Our Legal Right
by Azmi Sharom
The Bersih organisers, the Police and DBKL should have met and sorted out the logistics of getting such a huge number of people together in Dataran Merdeka for a couple of hours.
WITHIN hours of BERSIH 3.0 being over, I received an angry e-mail from a reader asking me in no uncertain terms: “Are you happy now?” The writer was furious at the scenes of violence, and I suppose I was a convenient and appropriate target for his vitriol.
After all, I have been a consistent supporter of the right to assemble and have gone on record (along with nine other concerned citizens) to demand that the Government allow BERSIH 3.0 to go on without harassment at Dataran Merdeka.
Well, to answer the question, of course I am not happy that people, mostly participants, were 
injured during BERSIH 3.0.However, some perspective is needed here.
If thousands of people set out to cause trouble, the damage and injuries would have been astronomical.The fact that the number of injured was minuscule only serves to confirm that the vast majority of people went there with peaceful intentions.
The Police have been going on about how there would have been no trouble if the organisers had just listened to them and staged a sit-in at a stadium.This makes them look reasonable to the casual observer.
Why insist on going to Dataran Merdeka when alternatives were offered? I beg to differ. The issue is not about alternatives; the issue is about the constitutional right of the people to gather in public spaces.
According to our Constitution, and a plethora of international legal documents relating to human rights, the only limitation and consideration that authorities should take into account is with regard to national security and public order.
Traffic jams are not a national security or public order issue.This being the case, the organisers,
the Police and DBKL should have got together and sorted out the logistics of getting such a huge number of people together in Dataran Merdeka for a couple of hours.
The duty of the authorities is to facilitate this right, not to offer alternatives based on their own convenience.
The violence on Saturday is unfortunate and regrettable. It is hoped that all culprits will be brought to book. I would also hope that if there is to be another BERSIH rally in the future, less prominence should be given to political parties.It is of course within the rights of political parties to take part in Bersih events, especially if they too have been calling for clean and fair elections.
However, in order to minimise the usual accusations that BERSIH is a mouthpiece for Pakatan 
Rakyat, it would be prudent if, in the future, the role of political parties be more one of solidarity, with no need for speech-making and the like.
However, what has almost been forgotten amid the accusations, blaming and finger-pointing, is that the largest ever group of Malaysians rallied together to demand clean and fair elections.The fact that so many people would take their feelings to the streets surely indicates that there is an important groundswell here.
Our right to choose our leaders must be done in a way that is above suspicion. The question that remains is: “Are those who matter listening?”
Din Merican: the Malaysian DJ Blogger 
To me this BERSIH 3.0 is important and to made the ruling coalition to understand the suara rakyats regarding the urgency in electrol reforms. I was suprised why the government and TDM kept on accusing the Steering Commitee to be held responsible for all the mishappening is to topple the government. Must be funny to toople the present government with just a bare hands and ran amok with the presented fully armed PDRM….looks like a big joke. Moreover the ulamas said its a sin to those muslim who participates. This pro ummnoes did not or even tried to understand the objective of this rallies. Nothing less for a better clean Malaysia and better governances. I strongly believe the goodwill of BERSIH and they never on side to any political parties….maybe some idiots dont accept changes in our system which include our QUEPACs assy shorty boss who barking madly through TV3 regarding BERSIH jeopardizing the governances body… God be with BERSIH ….
To me, based on what has been said, by especially the police, it only proves that the police are plain ignorant and uneducated. They are only brawn with little or no brainpower. This goes up to the top most office of the force. It is not therefore a surprise that hardly any graduates opt to join the force. Hence with ones srp entry to the force is made possible. Its a waste of time and energy talking to the police. The guys in the street were brave only because they had “ammunition and arms” of some sort wheres the demonstrators had nothing. Najib its time you make an exit
“Our right to choose our leaders must be done in a way that is above suspicion.”
Really? Then let’s all give his lembekness a French kiss. It’s US$1bil sorta condition. Of course the Lembek has a right to an attorney and cepat, cekap and amanah polls to keep this quiet..
http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2012/05/03/scorpenes-deal-najibs-us1b-condition/
So if they wanna talk about legalities, then it’s obvious that none of the protesters stepped onto Dataran Merdeka itself. Not one blade of grass was disturbed by Bersih 3.0. Ask the grass! What was the perimeter of a Square as defined by the lord dickless Mayor and the Magistrate of Duplicity? Were the Chartered Surveyors consulted? Are arrests ‘legal’ when the goons don’t wear identification tags? For all you know, it was alien abduction/kidnapping. After all, if C4 could be used willy-nilly on a Mongolian ‘domestic’ inconvenience, what is there to say that simple dissenting rakyat were not subject to Bad Faith?
Hair splitting? You bet!!
The police were the aggressors and mutilators of peace. Three days before the Bersih 3.0 rally started, their intimidating presence was visible everywhere. They caused needless traffic jams all over the city and inconvenienced peace-loving people who just want to be left alone. They were armed to the hilt. I saw the instruments of oppression were all deployed as a show of brute force instead of being the facilitator of peace. Merdeka Square, the icon of freedom and independence was shackled with barricades and razor-sharp barbed wires and was denied access to the tax-paying public.
The rally was just about to disperse when the aggressor police went amok firing tear gas and splaying acid-leaden water on peace-loving people well beyond the confines of Merdeka Square. They broke the law and went beyond their jurisdiction to break out of the confines of Merdeka Square to attack peace-loving Malaysians. This is an unconscionable act. All the violence were initiated and perpetuated by them; and agent provocateurs provided them the pretext to unleash the full range of their hatred and venom towards peace-loving Malaysians. This was premeditate violence.
The peace-loving people were prevented from dispersing as every avenue of dispersal was blocked and the mass-transit transport was ordered to be shut down. In very limited cases do some rally participants fight back. This is recognized as self-defence which the aggressors considered as defiance. So for one measly act of defiance, the aggressors decided to punish the whole community. This is akin to the barbaric era of Genghis Khan where one small act of infraction resulted in the total destruction of whole cities where men, women, children, dogs, cats, chickens and cattle were also being wiped out. In our contemporary time, we also saw the Arshad regime of Syria behaving in the same form of brutality. Yes, the Bersih 3.0 rally saw a mini-demonstration of such callous behavior from the aggressors.
And yet these brutish aggressors were hailed as victims from an oppressed, defenseless and peaceful people. Amazing but true, only in Bolehland!
Yes it is the constitutional right of people to gather and having made known they want to gather peacefully, it is then the duty of the police to make sure the people are safe. The Police are not formed to be used by those who administer the nation against the nation. The police is part of the community and therefore exist to protect and make sure the people were safe. Thats is the stand and it is not negotiable.
Oh dear, more on our rights…
Constitutional right to gather in public places vs. public order vs duty of police to safeguard the public.
Is this not the best reason why everyone should compromise?
The essential message of BERSIH would have been delivered just as effectively in a stadium as anywhere else.
Poor Isa. Yes we hear you and respect your opinion.
Isa,
If they can throw gas canisters at persons in open spaces what’s to stop them from doing that in enclosed spaces? Nothing surprises me anymore in Malaysia. That includes murder.
“It defies court order of the ban on Dataran.So you lost your legal right.” – makcik
Yeah, but it doesn’t cover the surrounding areas just Dataran. Nice try, makcik but thanks for playing.
the people who hide behind the names rocky, makcik and pakcik! they are super intelligent but have some loose contacts in their brain. or tiga-suku or screwloose. since, they are probably funded through taxpayers money, we appeal to the people responsible to give us some worthy opponents – they are absolutely boring!
Kathy, didi,
if they become more desperate they’ll shoot with live bullets and I’m sure they have a Plan B in case they can’t win.
the message from them is Crystal Clear: DON’T ROCK THE BOAT!
where there is no rule of law but Law of the Jungle they are not bothered about legalities. they’ll twist and turn till we give up. they want total obedience from us like a dog who won’t bite the hand that feeds it.
the ungrateful bastards we are because we refuse to sit in an enclosed stadium and protest.
CLF.,
your Boss who is somewhere up there should send these morons to the ‘Kitchen’ when they come to meet him. put in a word for us please.
We don’t need to be told that it is our legal right to assemble. Article 10 of the country’s constitution says it all. But it is a right that is heavily qualified and makes nonsense of a document like a country’s Constitution. The recent passing of the Assembly Bill into law is merely to swap one bad law for another. Just another tool in the tool box of a regime that has no intention of playing ball with a bunch of screaming adolescents, bored houswives and old men looking for their fifteen minutes of fame before the lights go out for them, out to make clear their message which is that this is one game that has gone too long. It is time we change the referee and bring in a fresh ball to kick around.
Also it is time you guys stop being apologetic about expressing your opinion. Angry people do what angry people do. They don’t negotiate they demonstrate. They demonstrate with banners and body language to go with those. It is time you guys stop playing the blame game. It is a distraction from the message and the message is loud and clear. We need those images of ‘gas cannister throwing ‘anarchists” and images of hordes of baton weilding police officers beating up on innocent bystanders and protestors alike. They made their way to the international media, to our TV screens over here at prime time though nobody is watching or listening since they were less than a fraction of a minute. But convenient props at breakfast time nevertheless. What is missing is just the popcorns.
Life goes on folks!