COMMENT | Cops have no power under PAA to stop DNAA rally

COMMENT | We refer to the statement issued by Bukit Aman Criminal Investigation Department (CID) chief Suhaily Zain yesterday where he stated that the “application” submitted for the upcoming rally on Sept 16 was rejected as it failed to meet requirements under the Peaceful Assembly Act 2012 (PAA).

Firstly, the police are either ignorant or misconstruing the law; there is no “application” to be made for an assembly under the PAA. The requirement states that the police must only be notified of the assembly.

Subsequent to the receipt of the notice, the police may then impose restrictions and conditions to the rally but there is no power for them under the act to outright deny anyone the right to assemble.

What can be seen from the CID chief’s response here is that the police were in fact notified of the upcoming assembly, the objections merely being to the particulars contained within the notice.

Reading between the lines, we can infer that the notice was given five days before the upcoming rally, as it was not cited as one of the reasons for the impropriety of the notice alleged by the police...