Bersih Unveils Plan B

(Malaysian Digest) – Bersih said it will proceed with its planned sit-in protest tomorrow, but has pledged to accede to a court order prohibiting them from gathering at Dataran Merdeka.

“We will not breach the order… We will gather at our gathering points which are not mentioned in the order (banning the group and members of the public), and move as close to Dataran as possible.

“This is in the hope of the goodwill of the Kuala Lumpur City Hall to allow us to use the Dataran Merdeka anyway and not enforce the court order,” said the electoral reform advocacy group’s co-chairperson Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan at a press conference here today.

Ambiga was served with a court order at 12:08pm today banning her, the group and the general public from Dataran Mereka.

The order was filed by the Dang Wangi OCPD and issued by magistrate Zaki Asyraf Zubir of the Kuala Lumpur magistrate’s court.

Meanwhile, Ambiga also argued that the police have no powers under the newly-enforced Peaceful Assembly Act to bar tomorrow’s rally.

She said that Section 14(1) of the Act, which the government said would allow freedom of assembly in accordance with international norms, stated that police could only impose conditions for any planned assembly.

“Police have no power to deny the assembly; they can only impose conditions,” she said.

Section 14(2) of the same Act stated that if no conditions were given, any public assembly may carry on as planned.

“In the letter given to us by the police, there were no conditions imposed. The rally is a legal assembly under the Peaceful Assembly Act. The police have breached the provisions of the Assembly Act,” the former Bar Council president said.