Umno government transforms to be more repressive

National Human Rights Society president Malik Imtiaz Sarwar described the Peaceful Assembly Bill 2011 tabled today in parliament as even more repressive than before and offends the federal constitution.

Malik (left), a constitutional lawyer who represented the four Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia students’ against section 15 (1) (a) of the Universities and University Colleges Act, said this was what he had gathered from media reports and told Malaysiakini in an immediate response on his views of the Bill, “It appears that the framework is even more repressive than before. The scheme of regulation is not consistent with the prime minister’s promise of democratisation. Freedom of assembly is a constitutionality guaranteed right. Restrictions on that freedom must be reasonable and necessary. They must be proportional to the threat to public order that is sought to be avoided. How this bill is reasonable and proportionate is beyond me.”