All for legal public gatherings

I received the SMS News Alert yesterday but was too drugged out to react. This morning, however, was a different story. The headline of The Star which read, PROTEST AVENUE, said it all.

The Police Act will be reviewed to allow the public to assemble in specific places without the need for a police permit, Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein said.

How brilliant, I thought. And how much sense it makes.

Sure, it would be better to do without the illegal assembly laws but considering how shaky our political landscape is at the moment, you can understand (doesn’t justify it, but makes sense, I suppose) why they wouldn’t do away with it so soon.

If you really want to be pedantic about it, of course we need to do away with some of these archaic laws that, at the heart of it, goes against the grain of democracy. After all, isn’t all public space meant to belong to, well, the public?

But I digress. I think this is an opportunity to do so much. The concept, I am assuming, would be similar to the Speaker’s Corner that many countries around the world adopted. People are allowed to gather at these places – without a permit – to talk, raise issues and practice their right to free speech.

Granted, it seems a little forced when you have to travel to one location to be able to exercise your basic human right, but hey, no one ever said that life was fair. And it’s a start.

Most significantly, I suppose for us, is Singapore who opened their Speaker’s Corner in 2000. Singapore’s laws and ours don’t differ much so having the space has really worked for some of them. Most recently, of course, was when the Pink Dot event gained international attention – a whole lot of people from all walks of life coming together to lobby for a more “inclusive” Singapore, part of their gay rights movement.

I would imagine that if such a space existed in Malaysia, that the political parties will go to town with it first. Whatever fits their fancy. I am just happy that we are moving in the right direction.

A space like this makes perfect sense in Malaysia where democratic spaces has already opened up so much, mostly thanks to the Internet. In fact, I believe that this was what allowed March 8 to happen last year (although, I’m still unsure of what the long term impact of the “tsunami” is – everything’s become so sordid since then!).

I hope that Home Minister Hishamuddin Hussein is genuine in his intentions when he said:

“This way, the public’s right to assemble will be recognised but at the same time, such assemblies will not affect others who are not involved in such activities.”

These should not be any conditions attached to this – or at least nothing that our current laws don’t already cover (which is a hell lot!).

I also welcome the suggestion that the ISA would be reviewed. Sure, it’d be nice for it to be abolished, but I wouldn’t count on it.

8.38pm Malaysian time (+8 GMT)

Tags: hishamuddin hussein, Home Minister, illegal assembly, ISA, Malaysia, pink dot, public gatherics, speaker's corner