Police seal off venue of anti-ISA meeting, crowd beaten and dispersed
Beh Lih Yi 7:54pm Tue Oct 1st, 2002 updated version More than 100 police
officers tonight sealed off the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall in Kuala
Lumpur and stopped a planned anti-Internal Security Act meeting from
proceeding there. The meeting, organised by the Abolish ISA Movement (AIM),
seeks to renew opposition against the ISA in wake of last month’s Federal
Court decision which ruled that the initial detention of five reformasi
detainees was unlawful. At about 6.30pm, the police ejected 20 people who
were already inside the building and they joined 300 others who came later
in a three-hour stand-off outside the building. According to witnesses, the
police also took photos of the meeting venue. When the scheduled meeting
was about take place at 8.30pm, 30 riot police armed with batons arrived to
bolster the police presence. When the crowd insisted on entering the
building, about 10 people were beaten by the riot police and forced to back
away from building. A number of those clubbed suffered minor injuries.
Participants outraged AIM secretary, S Arutchelvam, was outraged by the
police action. “The reason why the police are taking such an action is
because the meeting was to discuss the abuse of power by the police in
detaining the reformasi activists under ISA,” he said. PRM vice-president
R Sivarasa called Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi (photo) a
“political coward”. “He ordered the police to come here, and yet he allowed
the US police to take off his shoes,” he quipped, referring to Abdullah
being forced by US Immigration to remove his shoes while going through a
security check at the Los Angeles airport during a visit last month. “The
police should be the ones upholding the law. Instead, they are the ones
breaking the law,” Sivarasa rued. At about 9.15pm, the crowd resolved to
meet instead at the house of Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, leader of the
opposition Keadilan, who was also present at the stand-off. By 10pm, most
of the participants have left the SCAH building. Hadi Ho, police chief of
Dang Wangi district, refused to comment when approached by reporters.
Organisers warned Earlier this afternoon, the police warned the organisers
to cancel the planned meeting. AIM vice-chairperson Zahir Hassan told
malaysiakini that he received a call from the officer in charge at the Dang
Wangi police station demanding that the meeting be cancelled. “He told me
that we are not allowed to organise the programme since we have not applied
for a permit or submitted any letter informing police of the event,” he
said. Zahir said he explained to the police officer that the meeting was
being held at the building belonging to two AIM members — Selangor Chinese
Assembly Hall’s Youth Section and the assembly’s Civil Rights Committee.
Since the building is on private premises, and the meeting is to be held
indoors, the movement does not require any police permit for the meeting, he
insisted. Zahir said that after the police warning, AIM submitted a letter
to the Kuala Lumpur police chief informing him about the meeting. However,
police tonight said that the letter has been rejected as they need a 14-day
notice. The police have also cited section 27 of the Police Act which
empowers them to stop activities that take place in a private location if
they deem that the activities may be prejudicial to national security
interests. Families of detainees Former ISA detainees, families of
detainees, civil groups representatives and social activists were among the
crowd who had come for tonight’s function. Apart from Keadilan president
Wan Azizah, also present were leaders from other opposition parties. On
Sept 6, the Federal Court which heard the habeas corpus application of five
reformasi detainees ruled that their initial 60-day detention made under
section 73 of the ISA was unlawful and that the police had acted in bad
faith in detaining them. However, the decision did not result in their
immediate release as, according to the court, it does not affect the
subsequent two-year detention order signed by Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in his
capacity as home minister.
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