The Malaysian Insight

THE organisers of the second #Lawan protest, which was supposed to take place today in Kuala Lumpur, have slammed police’s response to the cancelled event as excessive.  

Sekretariat Solidariti Rakyat (SSR) said despite police being given formal notice of the protest’s cancellation on Wednesday, these acts were still carried out.

SSR said police showed up in groups at the activists’ houses last night without prior notice to serve a court order. 

The organisers said they felt these actions were excessive because it was not done properly.

“We feel these actions are meant to intimidate activists from performing their duties and their democratic rights even though we have given notice to the police that we have cancelled the rally.” 

SSR said in a statement last night it was invited to a meeting on Wednesday with Dang Wangi police chief Noor Dellhan Yahaya to discuss the protest. 

During the meeting, the organisers submitted a notice to police regarding the cancellation of the protest, which was set to take place today. 

However, police went ahead and got a court order, which banned 34 SSR activists from entering certain parts of Kuala Lumpur today.  

“It also exposed the activists’ personal information by publishing copies of the court order along with their full names and MyKad number,” SSR said.  

The posts on social media have since been removed.

“We wish to emphasise that any protest that we organise will be published officially and done in line with Article 10 of the federal constitution. 

“We will not do anything carelessly or recklessly because each of our protests is to speak up for the people,” it said. 

The protest today would be a continuation of the first protest it held on July 31 in order to put pressure on Muhyiddin Yassin to resign for his failure in handling Covid-19 in the country.  

Despite the cancellation, police are still insisting on setting up 88 roadblocks and traffic diversions at the city centre ostensibly in response to the protest. 

RapidKL is also shutting down some of its train stations in the city centre to “protect public safety”.

Meanwhile, checks by The Malaysian Insight this morning showed that all roads leading to Dataran Merdeka have been cordoned off by police with no protesters in sight. – August 21, 2021.