KUALA
LUMPUR: Public assemblies are beneficial to the government as they
would allow the administration to know how the people feel, said United
Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly
and of Association, Maina Kiai.
Speaking at a forum here today, Kiai, from Kenya, said that attempts
to clamp down on people’s right to express may pose “risk of having
uncivilised forms of dialogues” instead.
“Civilised dialogue is when you say something, I listen to you; we
have an exchange, which leads to a positive that serves the greater
good. Uncivilised [dialogue] is the opposite,” he later explained after
the forum about the right to assemble.
Kiai said that protests, regardless of whether they favoured the
government stand or not, should not only be tolerated but encouraged.
“Counter-protests are well accepted. Like if you felt something
against what Bersih is doing, then by all means, please go ahead and
protest. We want to encourage that,” he said.
However, he cautioned that counter-protests should not be held on the
same day as it could potentially lead to problems such as clashes.
He said that a worrying trend currently occurring was that the state
would tend to make certain individuals (organisers) responsible for the
things that might have gone wrong in a rally.
“The state exists to protect all people, regardless of whether it is
the people it doesn’t like. You can’t transfer that responsibility to
others,” he said, adding that he would be more than happy to personally
provide technical training to the local police on ways to facilitate
assemblies.
Kiai, who repeatedly stressed that assemblies should be facilitated
rather than controlled, cited examples in other countries where the
police actually led a street protest, and in some instances, even
deployed outriders in a front of a protesting group.
“The challenge for the state is to treat controversial gatherings the
same way it would treat gatherings such as for breast cancer or
[something less sensitive],” he said.
Kiai also said that civil servants and employees of corporations should be encouraged to go out and protest.
A fundamental right
“The same way where a civil servant can vote, a civil servant can
also protest. It is a fundamental right. They can, and they should. They
shouldn’t be punished for it. Corporations should also be encouraged
[to ask their employees to participate], and not be victimised for it,”
he said.
Jointly organised by Bar Council and Suaram, the forum was entitled
“Right to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association: International
Standards and Good Practices”.
Also at the forum as panellists were criminal lawyer Baljit Singh
Sidhu, Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) secretary-general and veteran
activist S Arutchelvan, and Suhakam commissioner Muhammad Sha’ani
Abdullah. Bar Council human rights committee co-chair Andrew
Khoo moderated.
Baljit criticised the Peaceful Assembly Act 2012, which he said was
bulldozed through by the government in Parliament. “It looks beautiful
from afar, but it is far from beautiful,” he said after dissecting the
sections that “didn’t make sense”.
“Assemblies are needed, because just like a pressure cooker, we need holes or channels for us to let out,” he said.
He said that the government currently treated “human rights” as a term akin to a “problem, disease, or issue”.
“I feel that everybody, from the ministers to members of parliament to lawyers should go through a
course on human rights and what it means,” he said.
course on human rights and what it means,” he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment