PETALING JAYA: Police have been asked to desist investigating and charging those involved in the assembly organised by Sekretariat Solidariti Rakyat in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.
The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) proposed that the authorities emphasise on developing and strengthening the standard operating procedures (SOP) to enable such gathering by mitigating the risk of the Covid-19.
Suhakam said it deployed a team to monitor the assembly which was attended by approximately 1,000 people.
The seven-person Suhkam observation team was led by Commissioner Jerald Joseph together with Commissioners Datuk Mah Weng Kwai and Dr. Nik Salida Suhaila.
“Suhakam observed that the assembly was peaceful without any untoward incidents. We were encouraged by the observance by the organizer and participants in making every effort to comply with the pandemic SOP in place. We believe that this measure could be further improved in the future,” it said in a statement today.
“The police were seen facilitating the assembly by negotiating with the organisers to ensure that the assembly happened, despite the last-minute change to disallow participants to gather at Dataran Merdeka as planned.”
Suhakam reiterated that the rights of the people to gather peacefully has been guaranteed in Part II, Article 10 (1)(b) of the Federal Constitution which states that all citizens have the right to assemble peaceably and without arms.
