A Chinese education lobby group will protest to the Inspector General of Police over the 'highhanded and rude' behavior of police in preventing a meeting organised by the group at the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall in Kuala Lumpur last week.

The United Chinese School Committees' Association of Selangor and Kuala Lumpur (Dong Lian) said it will send a letter to IGP Norian Mai on Monday over the matter.

Dong Lian's chairperson Dr Yap Sin Tian said today the letter would state that police personnel who stopped the meeting had 'were rude, highhanded and portrayed a bad image of themselves to the public'.

"To avoid such unwarranted incidents from recurring in the future, we have decided to protest to the IGP," said Yap.

Dong Lian is the state committee for the influential United Chinese School Committees' Association (Dong Zong).

Last Wednesday, 17 police personnel led by Dang Wangi police chief Mohd Bakri Zinin barred about 300 people from entering the assembly hall for the Dong Lian meeting on the grounds that the organisers had not obtained a permit.

Bakri had quoted Section 27A of the Police Act which states that any police officer can order individuals involved in an indoor gathering to disperse if their activity is prejudicial to national security or could incite a public disturbance.

'Very curious'

Yap, who is also Dong Zong deputy chairperson, said last week's meeting was organised to discuss several education-related issues including urging the government to convert a proposed Vision School in Subang Jaya into a Chinese primary school to resolve the shortage of Chinese schools in the area.

"The meeting was to allow representatives of various associations to voice their opinions and exchange ideas on suitable ways to solve these issues," he said.

Yap said those invited to attend the meeting included Chinese school committees, parent-teacher associations, old boys' associations and representatives of several Chinese associations in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor.

He said those who came for the meeting had no intention of violating any law.

"We feel that such meetings are beneficial to the country and its people. We are very curious as to why the police prevented the meeting from being held," Yap said.

The Subang Jaya/USJ Chinese primary school working committee, which opposes the setting up of the Vision school in Subang Jaya, were among the participants who turned up for the meeting.

The committee is concerned that at present, there is only one Chinese school in Subang Jaya to cater for the 100,000-strong Chinese community there.