WEDNESDAY 5TH DECEMBER 2007-LAWYERS CALL OFF PEOPLE' S FREEDOM WALK

Lawyers call off People’s Freedom Walk
KUALA LUMPUR:
Malaysian lawyers have cancelled a planned march this weekend to mark Human Rights Day after they refused to apply for a police permit, a body representing the lawyers said on Tuesday. The decision came as the Government warned last week it would use a tough colonial-era security law (the Internal Security Act) to stop a wave of street protests that have rocked the nation in recent weeks. “The Bar Council takes the position that the requirement for an application for a permit violates our constitutional right to peaceful assembly,” Bar Council President Ambiga Sreenevasan said in a statement. Malaysian law requires a police permit to hold an assembly of more three people. Offenders face a fine or jail or both.
Ambiga said the controversy surrounding the planned Dec 9 People’s Freedom Walk, which had been held peacefully in the past two years, was “unfortunate and unwarranted.” “It should not be vilified as affecting race relations or be regarded as an anti-government rally,” she said. “It is an event that would have demonstrated complete racial harmony.” On Nov 25, thousands of Malaysian Indians staged the community’s biggest anti-Government protest, sparked by anger over policies they say prevent them from getting decent jobs or a good education for their children. Two weeks earlier, another crowd rallied in the capital to demand electoral reforms ahead of possible early elections in the next few months. They were the biggest street demonstrations in a decade. Following the rallies, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said the Government might use the Internal Security Act, which allows for years of detention without trial, to clamp down on street protests. In September, hundreds of Malaysian lawyers defied police to stage a rare protest demanding a thorough probe into allegations a lawyer fixed judicial appointments with a senior judge. Meanwhile, prosecutors charged 26 ethnic Indians with attempted murder Tuesday, their lawyer said, in connection with major anti-discrimination protests last month. “Twenty-six Indians were charged in court with attempted murder of an individual on November 24 during a protest in Batu Caves,” N Ravi, a lawyer acting for the accused, told AFP. If found guilty they face up to 10 years in jail, he said. The protest at Batu Caves, the site of an important Hindu temple on the fringes ‘of Kuala Lumpur, occurred on the eve of a mass rally by ethnic Indians in the capital. Ravi said the accused, aged between 19 and 46, would fight the allegations and other charges levelled against them including rioting, illegal assembly and causing damage to public property. “We can raise reasonable doubt against the charges,” he said, adding that the 26 were being detained in Pudu jail in downtown Kuala Lumpur. — Reuter, AFP