PETALING JAYA, 24 June 2009: Police in Selangor have yet again denied the DAP a permit to hold a dinner gathering with speeches.
The event, scheduled to be held tomorrow on 25 June 2009 at the Taman Sri Sungai Pelek Community Hall, was originally issued a permit with strict conditions but within the same day, the permit was withdrawn.
The police had on 23 June given a permit for the event, organised by Sungai Pelek DAP, on the condition that the dinner had to be contained in the hall and no political speeches were made. The organisers had to also ensure that the loudspeakers for the event faced into the hall and that the event ends at midnight.
However, another letter from Sepang district police chief Supt Zahedi Ayob on the same day immediately revoked the permit.
“In view of the swift preparations being conducted in the area of the hall, we can conclude that the conditions we have set will be broken.
“As such, I am revoking the permit for the event because I am confident the event will jeopardise security,” he said in his letter to Wong Chuan How, who is Sungai Pelek DAP secretary.
Wong told The Nut Graph that the DAP was appealing the police’s decision, adding however that the party would carry on with the dinner for an expected 1,800 people no matter what the police decided.
But the party has yet to decide whether or not they would give speeches. “We will insist on holding our dinners, but maybe it’s a silent dinner because of this. We don’t know,” he said.
DAP national vice-chairperson Tan Kok Wai said the situation was very unusual.
“No dinner held here before was rejected by the police if there was an application,” he said in a phone interview.
When contacted, Supt Zahedi would not say what action the police would take if DAP held the dinner should their appeal for a permit be rejected.
Wong also said that holding the dinner in the hall was restrictive because it was not big enough to hold 1,800 people.
The party had originally applied to hold its dinner in a football field but police rejected the party’s application because the field was a “public place”.
The police suggested then that the party should hold the event in a building or a hall.
This is the second time in a week police have rejected a permit for the DAP to hold a dinner. On Sunday, 21 June 2009, police withdrew a permit for a DAP dinner in Klang at the last minute.
The police had imposed a similar condition forbidding speeches. They finally allowed the Klang dinner, organised by DAP Member of Parliament Charles Santiago, to go ahead, but confiscated the public address system and surrounded the event with water cannons.
On 16 May 2009, police also stopped a DVD screening of the 7 May state assembly crisis in Perak at a DAP dinner in Sitiawan.
ISA BEN YUSOF says
This is certainly fear personified. BN is getting more edgy by the look of things. If BN and its goons continue to do such things and limit the freedom of the citizens, the BN and its cohorts surely must understand that they are giving more publicity to PR and that they are turning the citizens against BN.
What the PDRM is doing is very, very good for PR. Please PDRM keep up your good work so that PR will keep on rising in the minds of the people.
kanna says
They only got permits for BN because they are their goons.
Nicholas Aw says
‘Absolute power corrupts absolutely’. This is what is happening to DAP’s request for dinner permits. Any permit applied for by Umno or any BN component will be given the green light for sure but when it is from an opposition party, it is promptly rejected or given initial approval and consequently rejected on the grounds that “we can conclude that the conditions we have set will be broken.” Quote, unquote.
I don’t deny that the police have to see to the security of the nation but when they deny permits for gatherings at the flimsiest excuse and arrest people for illegal gatherings as and when they please, even if it is just a peaceful candlelight vigil, then I think the police are losing credibility and hurting their image all the more.
Malaysia Ku says
I hereby declare that Malaysia is a police state and the our police force is now named Polis Raja di Malaysia.
Titan says
Even if Hercules was able to clean the Aegean stables, the PR, even if it ultimately takes power will NOT be able to clean up PDRM and the triads that seem to have effective control over it along with the BN.
Having state and district police forces along the lines of what USA, UK and India have seems to be the solution for the future. The system will work better than just having PDRM because even if one unit fails, the others will continue to function and set examples for others to follow. PDRM’s top brass could be pensioned off and the others could be sent to look after royal palaces, museums, heritage sites etc where the opportunity for graft may be minimal.
The public is fed up with the charade by BN and PDRM and the silliest ways in which they react to situations as if the country is in dire straits of being taken over by violent enemies. Surely that can be looked after by our submarines and aircraft?
ng boon tat says
Why not just have a silent protest dinner. Everybody just eat silently but be determined in their hearts and minds to vote PR completely in the next GE!
siew eng says
Everyone learn sign language!
Let’s see how the police will censor that.
Hazlan Zakaria says
Considering the other comments herein and to be fair to the police, we must accept that they too must ‘cari makan’ and thus follow orders from higher ups, from Bukit Aman or Putrajaya. One follows the hands that signs one’s paychecks.
I bet even the police are strained to the breaking point between their oath-bound real duty to the public and their ‘red letter’ orders from above.
It doesn’t help when we are sometimes too emotional and provoke them too.
But I agree categorically, the developments on how the PDRM has been deployed and used by the powers that be do seem to be troubling, if not bordering on outright concern.
“O! For but one man with the moral courage to make the ‘right’ difference. Alas I am not he, hopefully he sits somewhere high up in Bukit Aman or the halls of government.`Else what a ‘pretty’ picture we paint for our generation and ones to come.”