Public can be barred from Parliament

Husna Yusop, Giam Say Khoon and B. Suresh Ram
The Sun Daily, 12 Dec 2007
 

PETALING JAYA: Lawyers said the public can be barred from entering the Parliament as it is a security area, not a public area.

They said the public need to abide by specific procedures regarding visitation before entering the Parliament building, and this includes seeking permission by writing in an application letter to the House's head of administration.

However, the lawyers differred in opinion on an injunction obtained by police to stop the Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (Bersih) from having an assembly to hand over a memorandum opposing the constitutional amendment to extend the retirement age of some Election Commission officials from 65 to 66.

Bar Council vice-president Ragunath Kesavan said anyone can enter the Parliament as long as they follow the procedures.

"Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz was right when he said they were not allowed in as they did not have a permission. And, opposition leader Lim Kit Siang was also right when he said the public should have access to their elected representatives.

"But, the Parliament is not an open area like Dataran Merdeka. There are certain procedures which the public must observe," he toldtheSun today when asked for his views on the incident yesterday where 29 protesters were held for defying a court order, but all of them were later released.

The visitation procedures to enter the Parliament is available on its website www.parlimen.gov.my

Two other lawyers T. Kuhan and Gan Ping Sieu also concurred with Ragunath about the need for the public to abide by the visitation procedures and be confined to the limited areas within the House which are either restricted from or open to the public.

However, Gan who is also MCA Youth legal bureau chief said police should refrain from taking "excessive enforcement" as submitting a memorandum to the MPs should not be taken as an illegal assembly which poses a security threat.

"The public have the right to be in the public gallery in Parliament, so the application should not become an obstruction to stop people from going to Parliament," he said.

On the court injunction obtained by the police, Gan said it was quite strange for the police to do so but it should not be questionable as the court had granted it.

Kuhan said the police may have felt they would be seen as being one-sided if they were to act on their own, so they went to court to obtain the order to exercise their right.

"The right way is to go to court. Anybody can go to the court. The court will not discriminate, it upholds the law. When there are two differing parties, you go to the court because it is independent. And, you cannot defy a court order.

"It is up to the court to grant the order. In this case, the court, after taking all circumstances, decided as such. If they (Bersih) disagreed with this, they should also go to court and ask to set aside the injunction," he said, adding that Bersih could have just postponed the handing over of the memo pending the decision of the court.

On the other hand, Ragunath said there was no need for the police to take such a harsh position because it is not a threat against national security or the government.

"This is all part of the democracy process. The government has to accept this. Demonstration is a sign of good democracy. We should be proud that besides having a strong ruling party, we also have a vibrant opposition.

"The ruling power should go to the cause of the issues that people are raising. Obviously, there is discontent. Whether it is valid or how big it is, it is another issue. The government should take it in a stride and allow for dissent," he added.