Cops urged to act against forum-bashers - Star

SEREMBAN: Aug 12, 2008

Negri Sembilan DAP wants the police to charge the demonstrators who disrupted and threatened to storm the Bar Council forum on Saturday.

Its state deputy chief and Senawang asemblyman P. Gunasekaren said police should have arrested the demonstrators rather than allowed three of them to enter the Bar Council office, which was private property.

“It is sad that the police allowed them to dictate terms. The demonstrators should be arrested and detained under the Internal Security Act for stoking racial sentiments,” he said when met at the district police station in Seremban 2.

Earlier, Bukit Kepayang assemblyman Cha Kee Chin lodged a report at the police station against the demonstrators. Accompanying him were Seremban MP John Fernandez, Temiang assemblyman Ng Chin Tsai and Gunasekaren.

In his report Cha said he failed to understand why the police couldn’t control the crowd and ask them to disperse although they numbered only a few hundred.

“We have to reiterate here that the DAP respects Article 3 of the Federal Constitution which states that Islam is the official religion of this country.

“But Article 10 of the same Constitution also states that we have freedom of association and freedom of speech,” he said.

Cha said the DAP was also unhappy with statements by Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar and Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, which he described as “threatening.”

“The participants at the forum were multi-racial. They were only having discussions in the best interest of all Malaysians,” he said.