By Teo Nie Ching on 8 December 2011:
In his grandiose speech on the eve of Malaysia Day where Najib proudly proclaimed his aspiration to create the "world's best democracy" in Malaysia, he spelt out an initiative to amend Section 27 of the Police Act 1967 pertaining to freedom of assembly, pursuant to Article 10 of the Federal Constitution.
The BN administration subsequently tabled the Peaceful Assembly Bill in the recent Parliament sitting, the last for year 2011, probably the last before GE13. However, the content of the bill was immensely disappointing and ironically, we are "better off" with the current legislation than what was presented to us.
Although Najib promised to relax the restrictions pertaining to freedom of assembly, the truth is that the Peaceful Assembly Bill introduced additional restrictions previously not found in the Police Act, one of which is a condition governing the age of organsisers and participants.
According to section 4 of the bill, citizens under the age of 21 are prohibited from organizing any assembly. No reason was actually given, therefore my guess is this: As a citizen can only vote upon reaching the age of 21, our youths below 21 are barred from organizing any public assemblies.
The fact is though, there is no direct relation between someone organising an assembly and whether that person will vote, let alone whether he/she is a voter! On top of that, not all public assemblies are related to politics.
If the right to assembly and the right of vote are taken as the same thing, it is extremely unnecessary and inappropriate. There are perfectly good reasons for young people below the age of 21 to organize an assembly to convey their messages.
One good example can be found in East Malaysia. Since mid-2009, students of Universiti Malaysia Sabah Labuan International Campus (UMSKAL) have been affected by water supply shortages. Due to their water woes, some students had even quit UMSKAL to continue their studies at other universities.
Basicaally, the undergraduates had had enough and then organized a protest assembly in March 2011, hoping to attract the attention of the relevant Ministers and urging the authorities to provide a solution to their misery.
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