The question remains as to why the organisers of the 'Federal Constitution - Protection for All' public forum were 'ordered' to end the meet early due to a crowd of protestors outside the venue when police could have instead first dispersed the mob.

Yesterday, the Penang leg of a road show by Article 11, a coalition of non-governmental organisations defending constitutional rights in light of conflicts with Islam, was very short-lived, unlike the previous one in Malacca.

The campaign was launched on March 13 in Petaling Jaya with an open letter to Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and a signature petition.

In a telephone interview today, a few of the speakers and participants shared their disappointment over the police's request to them to abort the event instead of controlling the protesters.

They also could not understand the blackout of the incident in all national English dailies except The Sun although they said they were not surprised. The organisers had held a 30-minute press conference immediately after being ordered by police to stop their meeting.

This in contrast to the Chinese-language newspapers which had "proper reports with good photos" to reflect the situation and Malay daily Utusan Malaysia which carried a report by national news agency Bernama .

Women's Aid Organisation researcher and forum participant Chin Oy Sim

"When we (I and speaker Honey Tan) arrived at Cititel at 7.45 am, there were at least 50 people gathered across the road. There was a strong police presence with roadblocks at all access roads leading to the hotel. As cars were being stopped at the police checkpoints, the forum attendees had to get to the hotel by foot. Special Branch personnel were everywhere.

"In fact, we did hear rumours of a protest or disturbance but we certainly didn't anticipate the scale of it. Obviously, the police had been appraised of the situation. Someone said that posters were found at the Masjid Kapitan Keling, a major mosque, two days ago.

"Over 100 people had gathered by 8.45 am carrying posters with some very disturbing slogans such as 'Undang-undang Allah mengatasi hak asasi manusia' (Allah's laws prevail over human rights) and "Batalkan IFC, Bukan Tangguh" (Cancel the IFC, not shelve it). This was accompanied by rousing chanting. Either they have been misinformed or they did not know how to respond to Article 11 and the issues being discussed at the forum, hence the recycling of material from previous protests to the formation of an Interfaith Commission.

"When (lawyer and speaker) Zaid (Ibrahim) arrived, the chanting grew very loud and the crowd was visibly more assertive and aggressive. When some tried to storm the hotel at about 9.45 am, the police came up and asked us to stop all walk-in registrations. Imagine finishing within 45 minutes when the event was originally scheduled to end at 1 pm. And three of the five speakers were forced to squeeze their views into five-minute slots.

"It is of grave concern that we should stop a legitimate discussion when the people outside were the ones who were turning unruly. Based on what I saw and heard, the inside activities were broken up as a direct result of concerns over the outside activity. Here, the question of a police permit does not ever arise but the crowd outside is certainly an illegal assembly."

Lawyer Haris Mohamed Ibrahim of the pro-tem Malaysian Civil Liberties Society

"The police requested us to stop because the group outside was getting very unruly although they had earlier told us to go ahead. They were afraid that things will get out of hand. They gave 30 minutes to wrap up the forum.

"I'm disappointed with the way things turned out because the legitimate rights of those who had come from far and wide for a civil discussion had been denied by a group of people. If they had their own point of view, they should have come in and voiced it out.

"We have never practised censorship. In fact, we allocated two hours for a question-and-answers session. They could have equally participated.

"The Article 11 planning committee has called for an urgent meeting on May 18."

Lawyer and speaker Honey Tan

"I'm happy there was no violence but a bit disappointed that the police chose to ask us to disperse when we were conducting our meeting legitimately without causing any problems. But the chair (Dr Prof Johan Saravanamuthu) did an excellent job in controlling the session despite being faced with rude and disrupting questions.

"They (the hecklers at the forum) demanded that we use Bahasa Malaysia since we were discussing the Malaysian constitution. They also asked in a not-so-friendly manner whether or not we had a permit failing which they would get the police to act. Johan explained to them nicely that we didn't need a permit.

"I totally support anyone's right to demonstrate and assemble but they should also respect our rights and when they cross the line to become disruptive, the police should step in and handle the problem immediately. They (police) should have been more proactive.

"Every single Chinese newspaper had reports with photos. They did a good job of recording the event. But the blackout in the News Straits Times (NST) and The Star is very telling."