Thisforum was held after BERSIH 2007 rally organized by al-Jazeera and hadinvited 3 speakers. 2 from UMNO dan 1 from human rights lawyer. This articlewill fully base on the panelists’ words. I will not add any of my single word onit. The dots (…) that you will see throughout the article mean I cannot clearlylisten to the word mention by panelists, so I just make it dots.1. KhairiJamaluddin, DeputyUMNO Youth Leader and the son in law of the present Malaysian Prime Ministeralso
2. NazriAbdul Aziz, theGovernment Minister and
3. MalikImtiyaz Sarwar,Human Right lawyer.
Moderator:
Gentlemen,thank you for being with us today. Let’s begin if we could by getting an ideaof what happen on that weekend because there are many different perspectives onwhat exactly is going on. Minster let me begin with you.
NazriAbdul Aziz, theGovernment Minister
Iwas in my constituency and I was told that the police from the paper that Iread that the police had a few police block outside the city to prevent peoplefrom coming in. For this reason, the fears that there might be weapons whichmay be used by irresponsible people not necessarily the demonstrators. And Iwas told there were a group of people specially distributed over so many areastry to come in to Kuala Lumpur.
Moderator:
Ok,Malik Imtiyaz Sarwarr. What was your interpretation?
MalikImtiyaz 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 comingin for the rally. People started moving into KL (Kuala Lumpur) by about 10, 11o’clock. I myself have caught in traffic jammed as earlier as 9 o’clock. So, tosay that traffic jammed because of the rally itself, I don’t think it’scorrect. The police road blocks himself cause the jams. And then by about 3o’clock the event kicks off. There was some commotion in Masjid Jamek area andI think the news crew for al-Jazeera that caught some of that. But the officialmedia that actually …… That was the only event. What actually happen was groupsof some people are putting …. 60 thousand people assemble outside the King’sPalace, which is the objective. To walk to the King’s Palace as a show ofsolidarity among civil society, and present the memorandum which was done.
Moderator:
Doyou think it was handled well? Either in political or policing way.
KhairiJamaluddin, DeputyUMNO Youth Leader
Firstly,I think the policing was absolutely well handled by the …Malaysian Police. Interm of restrained that showed, in term of crowd control, in term of managingthe traffic close. Imtiyaz Said just now, the traffic was not cause by thepeople participating the demonstration but the police. But the police weredoing the road block well, handling the road block precisely because there wasthe 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? Wasit well handled?
MalikImtiyaz Sarwar,Human Right lawyer
Ihave mix feeling about this. I think, I’ve heard stories of how some policeofficer actually assisted marches as they moved to the Agong’s Palace. But Ialso haven’t finish about what happen in Masjid Jamek. I’ve also read of someuse of force, some say some unnecessary use of force in Jalan Maharajalela, somy sensitivity in very mix.
Moderator:
Thegovernment has mentioned minister has accuse al-Jazeera of wrongly saying forcewas used and yet in a very next press he said only water cannon and tear gaswere used. Now, where is the line between force and non force?
NazriAbdul Aziz, theGovernment Minister
Well,you know you have to disperse the assembly there are no other means to do soand the only legitimate means is to use the water cannon and also to use thetear gas. And I know that the police has not use any force because of all thesereasons. The world has known that there is going to be a big rally on the 10thand we were under public scrutiny not just in Malaysia, al-Jazeera withinminute can distribute whatever the information to the whole world. So, that’svery pretty obvious that the police will not any force because we were underclose scrutiny by the whole world.
Moderator:
When20, 40, 60 thousand people descend the … the central town, what point youdecide that the rational way to handle this, is to trying to get them to goaway rather than just say ok go on with it, get whatever with and let’s moveon.
NazriAbdul Aziz, theGovernment Minister
Thepoint is they can’t do this because we have section 27 of the Police Act whichdoes not allow for this and we also have section 141 under the Penal Code whichalso does not allow for this. For all these reasons because..
Moderator:
Thelaw allows for marches, it’s merely the matter of political decision. This oneis ok, that one isn’t.
NazriAbdul Aziz, theGovernment Minister
Wedon’t allow this because we have historical background for this. We are multiethnic country.
Moderator:
Butpoint being that, let say if UMNO had apply for a….
KhairiJamaluddin, DeputyUMNO Youth Leader
link to the video
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