Lawyers end march, say to keep up pressure on assembly law
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 28 — The Bar Council warned the Najib administration today it will “continue knocking on the doors of Parliament” if the Peaceful Assembly Bill is passed without public consultation.
He urged the government to consider the council’s proposed alternative to the government’s original Bill, which he described as an “unjust law made in haste … which will impose unreasonable and disproportionate fetters on freedom of assembly”.
“The Bar will continue knocking on the doors of Parliament if the Bill makes it to the statute books in its current form,” he vowed during a brief press conference in Parliament here.
Lim was addressing reporters just moments after he led hundreds of lawyers in the council’s “Walk for Freedom” march to Parliament as a sign of their open defiance of a law they claim infringes on Malaysians’ constitutional rights.
The prominent lawyer, along with nine other representatives from the council, were allowed through Parliament gates and into the lobby to hand over a copy of its alternative Bill to deputy minister Datuk V. K. Liew and a letter of appeal urging MPs to vote wisely.
“We are not anti-government or pro-opposition. We are anti-injustice and anti-unconstitutionality … We are pro-justice and pro-rule of law. We have always worked closely with the government,” Lim told Liew when handing over the documents.
