THE inspector-general of police has wrongly cited the Peaceful Assembly Act in blaming Bersatu for the violence at its recent Nothing to Hide 2.0 forum, a lawyer said.

Lawyers for Liberty executive director Eric Paulsen said the act should not be used against the organiser because the troublemakers at the forum were considered criminals.

“The Peaceful Assembly Act does not apply in this case, because it is for public assemblies and the authorities can impose some conditions, (whereas) this was just a forum. Anybody can come to talk, question and answer, but what that happened is beyond expectations and beyond the control of the organisers.

“In the Nothing to Hide incident, it is a criminal matter and it is for the police to arrest, investigate and charge them in court if they have evidence.

“You are not talking about an accident. You are talking about people intent on causing trouble, like a bunch of hooligans,” he told The Malaysian Insight.

Paulsen said such people should not be allowed to dictate the freedom of speech and of assembly and feared that the authorities would use security and an organiser’s responsibility as conditions to bar public gatherings.

“The organisers, of course, have to have some measure of responsibility, but to pass the entire blame to the organisers is wrong. For example, if the stage collapses because too many people were standing on it, then it is, of course, the organiser’s fault.”

He also said Section 3(3) of the Police Act required police to maintain the peace and security of Malaysia.

Khalid Abu Bakar today blamed Bersatu for failing to handle security at the Sunday forum. The IGP said Bersatu, as the organiser, was bound by the Peaceful Assembly Act, which requires notice to be given to the police of a public gathering. He also said police had been outside the hall as they were not “invited” inside.

The forum was meant to be an open debate between Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who now heads the Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition, and Prime Minister Najib Razak, who did not attend.

Things turned violent when the former prime minister answered a question on the Memali incident under his watch in 1985, in which some members of a militant group, its leader from Islamist party PAS, and policemen were killed in a siege.

Since Sunday’s violence, members from PH and ruling Malay party Umno have blamed each other for instigating the chaos.

Bersatu information chief Kamaruddin Mohd Nor, meanwhile, said the need for police approval for public gatherings should be scrapped if organisers were to be blamed for any untoward incident.

“Why do we need to ask for their permission then? Why then do they come and say that you are not allowed to do this and that?

“If they are making the organisers 100% responsible, then fair enough, we don’t need to go to the police the next time we organise anything,” Kamaruddin told The Malaysian Insight.

He said police officers who had been at the forum stood by and did nothing to keep the peace when chaos broke out.

“Isn’t it the job of the police to ensure that if there is any sign trouble and violence, they should apprehend the situation?

“We are not saying that police are (solely) responsible but I don’t think it is proper for the police to just wash their hands and say that they have nothing to do with it.”

Bersih 2.0 chairman Maria Chin Abdullah said Khalid should now focus on the investigation into the alleged perpetrators rather than blame the organiser.

Bersih has had plenty of experience organising public rallies and dealing with the police, and Maria said, while it took responsibility for its own events, police also had a role to play and should not stand by if violence occurred.

“If the organisers get their own security, they have done their part, and the police have to recognise that they have a role to play to maintain the peace.

“When Bersih does rallies, we do take the responsibility to make sure that things run in order, but we are civilians and there is a limit to how much we can do.

“No normal person will bring flares to the event, the organisers will not bring flares, we have so many public forums, have we experienced this kind of thuggery? Why would the organisers want to do that?

“When they saw the first slipper being thrown, the police there should have stopped it and prevented things from escalating,” Maria said.

Thirteen people are currently in police custody in relation to the fracas, some of them youths. Initial investigations found that a group of them were asked to gather in Setiawangsa and were paid RM50 each to go to the forum. – August 16, 2017.