Star Sabah: Freedom of Assembly and Speech are Constitutional Rights

KOTA KINABALU - “The federal government, its leaders and the police and army need to appreciate and respect that the freedom of assembly and speech are constitutional rights protected under the Federal Constitution,” said Datuk Dr. Jeffrey Kitingan, commenting on the barring of social media sites on Bersih 4, the actions taken against the Bersih 4 rally and the arrests of students of the “Occupy Parliament” sit-in at Parliament House.

The Bersih 4 rally is nothing more than a people’s movement and one of the last channels to make their grievances and voices heard by the government and leaders in power. 

Voicing out through the proper channels including by the ex-DPM Muhyiddin and others undertaking their constitutional duties to investigate wrongdoings have met with high-handedness and removal seem useless.  Free speech are been stifled everywhere even in the Sabah State Legislative Assembly by the new Speaker on the very first day on the job.

By right, the police and the security personnel ought to carry out their legal duty to protect the rally participants and not be used to protect those in power who failed the people and the country. 

The police are being used as pawns and tools by political leaders and yet our high-ranking police officers are blindly following orders to protect wrong-doing and clamping down on ordinary citizens.

At the same time, there are those with vested interests and sinister intentions as well as trouble-makers intent on disrupting and stopping the outpouring of the people’s grievances to keep their masters and Umno to remain in power.  It is these groups that the police should arrest and take action and not ordinary citizens out to exercise their constitutional right.

It is not just the issue of failure of the federal and state governments.  It is the very result of their failures that are badly affecting Malaysians from all walks of life, race and religion.  

The plunging ringgit to more than RM4.31 to the US dollar which used to be averaging RM2.50 and more than RM3.1 to the Singapore dollar which was at par once, speaks volumes of a failing government.   Worse is yet to come for the people in the form of price hikes due to the plunging ringgit.

It is a also a failure of the elected representatives in the BN fold that are going to make Malaysia a failed state.   These representatives are part of the government but do not seem to know or pretend not to know right from wrong and almost all of them failed to do anything to stop or voice the wrong-doing of the government.   It is ironic that as representatives elected by the people, they rather accept the lies spewed by government ministers rather than the truth voiced by the people and their sufferings.

From their present predicament, “Do the ordinary peace-loving citizens have much choice than to assemble peacefully and to pour out their grievances in social media in order to save their beloved country, Malaysia, from becoming a failed state and to secure a better future for the generations to come,” asked Dr. Jeffrey.