Social reform movement Aliran has urged Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to cancel the two-day 'large-scale riot and chaos' training for 1,400 security and medical personnel to be held in Penang tomorrow.

Its president P Ramakrishnan, who expressed shock over the training, was concerned that "such routine exercises" will create unnecessary fear by implying that there was an imminent danger.

"It is difficult to believe that the police have hit upon the brilliant idea quite suddenly. This whole exercise is clearly orchestrated to benefit the Barisan Nasional (BN)," he said in a statement.

"It is being held so close to the 11th general election and has been widely publicised through (the national news agency) Bernama ," he added.

Yesterday, the agency reported that the training will 'erupt' in Bukit Mertajam, Butterworth, Nibong Tebal, Balik Pulau and Georgetown.

It quoted Penang police chief Othman Talib as saying that the "fights" and "riots" were part of police training in the run-up to the elections to test the efficiency of the force and several other government agencies in facing all eventualities.

The training is to be carried out jointly with the Penang branch of the National Security Department, the Federal Reserve Unit, St John's Ambulance and the district offices.

However, it remains unclear if similar sessions have been planned nationwide in preparation for the coming general election.

Fear tactic

Ramakrishnan said by roping in the police as part of the BN's apparatus, it was an obvious strategy to browbeat the electorate into voting for the ruling front.

He believed that an element of fear and intimidation was being deliberately injected into the run-up to the polls that is expected to be called by next month.

He said if it was true that the police intended to be prepared for all eventualities, that would involve good planning and an ongoing exercise to be in a constant state of alertness.

Officials from the Bukit Aman federal police headquarters could not be reached for comment.