Human rights watchdog Suaram has refuted inspector-general of police Khalid Abu Bakar's claims that there is no such thing as peaceful demonstrations in Malaysia.
 
On the contrary, Suaram contends that peaceful demonstrations only go awry when the police fail to respect constitutional rights to assemble.
 
Citing a list of peaceful massive rallies, Suaram coordinator R Thevrajan said that it is only when protesters are “violently” dispersed would a peaceful assembly go out of hand. 
 
“The IGP should know that it has been proven that civil society has been able to organise large public rallies peacefully without violence, as illustrated in the rallies of Bersih, Himpunan Hijau and Gerakan Mansuhkan ISA,” he said in a statement.  
 
“Time and again, rallies only turn ugly when the police failed to respect the people's right to peaceful assembly and use force to disperse protestors violently...
 
“Peaceful rallies should not be handled with threatening and provocative messages towards the organisers of the rallies.”
 
Fear-mongering
 
One of the bloodiest protests was the Bersih rally for clean and fair elections on April 28, 2012, which saw scores of protesters and media personnel assaulted by police. 
 
The National Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) public inquiry report on the Bersih rally also found that the police used excessive force in dispersing the protestors. 
 
Although dispersal using water cannon, tear gas and batons were often employed prior to the introduction of the Peaceful Assembly Act 2012, several large protests – such as the Black505 rally series - have taken place without incident. 
 
However, Thevrajan said that the police still use the tactic of “fear-mongering and demonising” rally organisers “with intention to stop it”. 
 
On Friday, Khalid told a press conference that no demonstrations are ever peaceful in Malaysia and that the police had warned the public against a rally organised by Gerakan Turun Kos Sara Hidup (Turun) on Dec 31, 2013 because of online messages claiming that the rally was aimed at toppling BN as the federal government.
 
Attitude change
 
To this, Thevrajan said that the Turun rally was not done in secret and the police could have easily verified this with the organisers and arranged for facilitation of the rally. 
 
Besides the anti-price hike rally, he listed at least six other rallies which saw thousands thronging the street without any violence. 
 
This included the Wanita Suara Perubahan and Himpunan Hijau rallies in 2012, the People's Uprising rally in January 2013 and Blackout rallies immediately after the 13th general election. 
 
“These are huge rallies in Malaysia which saw thousands of people on the streets of Kuala Lumpur.
 
“Even Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak congratulated and commended police on the handling of the People's Uprising Rally in January last year,” he said.

And all this, he said, would not have happened without the cooperation from police, who refrained from dispersing the crowd in a harsh manner. 

“If police personnel were present in each of these rallies, including the latest New Year's Eve rally, they would not have missed the applause by rally-goers at the end of the rallies for the police that allowed the rally to take place peacefully and facilitated the traffic flows.

 
“These are the attitudes and measures urgently needed to be instilled in the police for a greater freedom of expression and assembly in Malaysia,” he said.