United Nations special rapporteur Maina Kiai's recent comment on a slew of Malaysian issues constitutes "interfering" with Malaysian affairs and justifies the investigations into foreign funding for NGOs, Deputy Home Minister Nuz Jazlan Mohamed said.

"This guy, who is not Malaysian and works for a foreign organisation, comes here and tells the people to demonstrate and criticise the government. He is interfering in Malaysia.

"His action gives reason for the police to investigate groups or NGOs that receive foreign funding to check whether there is foreign interference," Nur Jazlan told Malaysiakini yesterday.

Kiai (photo), the special rapporteur on rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, spoke at a special lecture at the Institute of Integrity Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur that was hosted by the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) yesterday.

During his speech, Kiai said there should not be double standards on foreign funding, where donations from foreign princes are allowed while civil society is probed for receiving funding from foreign bodies.

Kiai was commenting on investigations against Bersih, among others, for allegedly receiving funding from the Open Society Foundations, which is linked to American billionaire George Soros.

Playing politics

The comparison with donation by Saudi princes is a reference to the reported no-strings-attached RM2.6 billion political donation by a member of the Saudi royal family to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.

Doing this, according to Nur Jazlan, constitutes "playing politics".

"I thought UN rapporteurs don’t play politics. This is the kind of foreign political interference and funding the government should investigate," Nur Jazlan said.

Also during his lecture, Kiai said the authorities have a duty to allow peaceful protests, even if some violence occurs.

He said the role of police is to remove the violent protesters and safeguard the right of peaceful citizens to gather.

Commenting on this, Nur Jazlan said it is difficult to isolate perpetrators of violence when there is a large crowd.

'We allowed Bersih 5'

He said while the Peaceful Assembly Act 2012 safeguards the right to peaceful assembly, the police are empowered under the Penal Code to stem violence.

"They can ignore the Peaceful Assembly Act if violence occurs," he said.

For example, Nur Jazlan said, police allowed the Bersih 5 rally in front of the Petronas Twin Towers even when the organisers did not seek permission from the owners as required by the Peaceful Assembly Act.

"The police allowed an illegal demonstration there as it took place peacefully.

"So it's not fair to say police are stopping demonstrations. They allowed it even though Bersih did not follow the Peaceful Assembly Act," he said.

The organisers wanted to hold Bersih 5 near Dataran Merdeka and an impromptu decision to change the location was made after police stopped protesters from marching towards the square.