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| The Malaysian Penal Code |
Any democratic government would support such a rally or at least not put obstacles in the path of the organisers. Unless of course the ruling Barisan coalition government is not in favour of free and fair elections or they have something to hide they are not telling us.
And now it seems the authorities are going to ask the courts for an order making taking part in Bersih2 rally on 9th July an offence. This is another Bolehland stroke of genius. Let me explain.
Murder is a capital offence under Malaysian law. To be specific, under section 302 of the Malaysian Penal Code murder is an offence punishable with death upon conviction. Now, to prevent you from committing murder, some smart aleck applies to the courts for a preventive order. How smart is that!
Either you have a law and respect it or you don't mock it.
So, is there a law against holding a rally, especially one calling for free and fair elections? No. But because we have a law requiring a police permit for a public rally and the authorities are not granting one for the Bersih2 rally, the Bersih2 rally when it happens then it becomes an illegal rally.
This practice of the Malaysian authorities asking the courts for preventive orders mocks the law if not actually an abuse of court process and the courts.
Wow, you're pretty upset with the BN government, as I'm gathering that a lot of people are. I would never have suspected this sort of thing when I first visited this beautiful land of Malaysia. But as a tourist you only see the good. When living here permanently, I now see what you see, and I don't like it too!
ReplyDeleteDuncan In Kuantan
Duncan, it is so sad but true. The situation here is getting from bad to worse. It seems that nobody cares a nick about what is morally right or wrong. It is all about oneself and desperate people doing desperate things and saying all kinds of desperate nonsense just to cling on to power and larceny while this country goes to the dogs. Institutions compromised so much so that the average Malaysian knows that if you are not on the side of the strong and connected you can't expect justice. The government is not the servant of the people anymore. It is the people who are expected to be the servants of the government to do as it bids. It is a sad indictment of a government that has been run too long by the same old coalition -the Barisan - that it thinks that government and itself are the one and the same thing and behaves exactly as such.
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