KUALA LUMPUR: The Peaceful Assembly (Amendment) Bill 2019 which, among other things, seeks to do away with the offence related to street protests, was passed by the Dewan Rakyat yesterday.
The bill was passed with amendments at the committee level, which includes shortening the notification period of holding an assembly to five days from the original proposal of seven — shortened from 10 days.
In winding up the debate on the bill, Home Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said the authorities needed a reasonable period of time to make the appropriate preparations including arranging for the required number of staff for each assembly.
“That was why I asked that our proposal for the period to be reduced from 10 days to seven to be accepted, but I wanted to show how we are concerned about the voice of the people through their Parliamentary representatives; we cannot abolish (the law), we cannot make it 24 hours because that would not be reasonable because even if it is only a notice, we (the government) have to be responsible.
“To ensure responsibility, we have to make preparations, in whatever situation; the organiser says it will be peaceful with no problems, but going by past records, there will still be problems,” he said.
Muhyiddin said with the amendments to the Peaceful Assembly Act 2012, all forms of assembly are allowed if advance notice is given, and if there are anything that can cause disturbance, violence or loss of peace, action will be taken under the Penal Code against those involved.
He also said at present, only one location has been gazetted as a place of assembly under the act, which is the Darul Makmur Stadium in Kuantan, Pahang, and the government plans to gazette more areas including Padang Merbok and Jalan Raja in Kuala Lumpur.
“Even though other areas are not gazetted, there are no prohibitions from assembly, but as far as possible, we want to identify other places so that organisers know which places can be used and the time (for application) can be shortened,” he said.
Earlier during the second reading, Muhyiddin said the bill also proposed a new provision to provide the officer responsible for a police district to impose compounds on those who fail to abide by the requirement to submit notification of the assembly or any other conditions or prohibitions.
“The compound for both offences is not more than RM5,000. So members of Parliament need not worry as offences under this Act are considered minor and not criminal offences, which would cause them to lose their qualification as members of Parliament, or from contesting in the next general election,” he said.
The Dewan will sit again on Monday. — Bernama