This
forum was held after BERSIH 2007 rally organized by al-Jazeera and had
invited 3 speakers. 2 from UMNO dan 1 from human rights lawyer. This article
will fully base on the panelists’ words. I will not add any of my single word on
it. The dots (…) that you will see throughout the article mean I cannot clearly
listen to the word mention by panelists, so I just make it dots.
This
forum was attended by:
1. Khairi
Jamaluddin, Deputy
UMNO Youth Leader and the son in law of the present Malaysian Prime Minister
also
2. Nazri
Abdul Aziz, the
Government Minister and
3. Malik
Imtiyaz Sarwar,
Human Right lawyer.
Moderator:
Gentlemen,
thank you for being with us today. Let’s begin if we could by getting an idea
of what happen on that weekend because there are many different perspectives on
what exactly is going on. Minster let me begin with you.
Nazri
Abdul Aziz, the
Government Minister
I
was in my constituency and I was told that the police from the paper that I
read that the police had a few police block outside the city to prevent people
from coming in. For this reason, the fears that there might be weapons which
may be used by irresponsible people not necessarily the demonstrators. And I
was told there were a group of people specially distributed over so many areas
try to come in to Kuala Lumpur.
Moderator:
Ok,
Malik Imtiyaz Sarwarr. What was your interpretation?
Malik
Imtiyaz Sarwar,
Human Right lawyer
Alright,
as earlier as Friday night police started screening entry into Kuala Lumpur.
I’ve read a road blocks up north and down south trying to deter people coming
in for the rally. People started moving into KL (Kuala Lumpur) by about 10, 11
o’clock. I myself have caught in traffic jammed as earlier as 9 o’clock. So, to
say that traffic jammed because of the rally itself, I don’t think it’s
correct. The police road blocks himself cause the jams. And then by about 3
o’clock the event kicks off. There was some commotion in Masjid Jamek area and
I think the news crew for al-Jazeera that caught some of that. But the official
media that actually …… That was the only event. What actually happen was groups
of some people are putting …. 60 thousand people assemble outside the King’s
Palace, which is the objective. To walk to the King’s Palace as a show of
solidarity among civil society, and present the memorandum which was done.
Moderator:
Do
you think it was handled well? Either in political or policing way.
Khairi
Jamaluddin, Deputy
UMNO Youth Leader
Firstly,
I think the policing was absolutely well handled by the …Malaysian Police. In
term of restrained that showed, in term of crowd control, in term of managing
the traffic close. Imtiyaz Said just now, the traffic was not cause by the
people participating the demonstration but the police. But the police were
doing the road block well, handling the road block precisely because there was
the demonstration. I’ll always get back to that.
Moderator:
Imtiyaz,
let me come back to..just to respond to that point you (Khairy) just made? Was
it well handled?
Malik
Imtiyaz Sarwar,
Human Right lawyer
I
have mix feeling about this. I think, I’ve heard stories of how some police
officer actually assisted marches as they moved to the Agong’s Palace. But I
also haven’t finish about what happen in Masjid Jamek. I’ve also read of some
use of force, some say some unnecessary use of force in Jalan Maharajalela, so
my sensitivity in very mix.
Moderator:
The
government has mentioned minister has accuse al-Jazeera of wrongly saying force
was used and yet in a very next press he said only water cannon and tear gas
were used. Now, where is the line between force and non force?
Nazri
Abdul Aziz, the
Government Minister
Well,
you know you have to disperse the assembly there are no other means to do so
and the only legitimate means is to use the water cannon and also to use the
tear gas. And I know that the police has not use any force because of all these
reasons. The world has known that there is going to be a big rally on the 10th
and we were under public scrutiny not just in Malaysia, al-Jazeera within
minute can distribute whatever the information to the whole world. So, that’s
very pretty obvious that the police will not any force because we were under
close scrutiny by the whole world.
Moderator:
When
20, 40, 60 thousand people descend the … the central town, what point you
decide that the rational way to handle this, is to trying to get them to go
away rather than just say ok go on with it, get whatever with and let’s move
on.
Nazri
Abdul Aziz, the
Government Minister
The
point is they can’t do this because we have section 27 of the Police Act which
does not allow for this and we also have section 141 under the Penal Code which
also does not allow for this. For all these reasons because..
Moderator:
The
law allows for marches, it’s merely the matter of political decision. This one
is ok, that one isn’t.
Nazri
Abdul Aziz, the
Government Minister
We
don’t allow this because we have historical background for this. We are multi
ethnic country.
Moderator:
But
point being that, let say if UMNO had apply for a….
Khairi
Jamaluddin, Deputy
UMNO Youth Leader
link to the video
CONTINUE…..
Mohamad
Ridhauddin
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