(Speech on the 2008 Budget in Parliament on Monday, 10th September 2008)

I must start with the shameful episode to the nation, which marred not only the presentation of the 2008 budget but also the 50th Merdeka Anniversary celebrations — the police firing live bullets at a ceramah crowd at Batu Burok, Kuala Terengganu on Saturday night and wounding two and the ensuing confrontation between the crowd and the police.

In 24 hours, the minimal “feel good” effect created by the 2008 Budget had been destroyed by two incidents – the police contempt for human rights and excessive use of force in Batu Burok on Saturday night and the latest Auditor-General’s Reports highlighting continuing widespread and incorrigible government inefficiency and waste of public funds.

All Malaysians, regardless of race, religion or political beliefs, are shocked by what happened in Batu Burok on Saturday night, especially with the mainstream media carrying screaming headlines like “750 pembangkang merusuh, rosakkan harta awam di Terengganu” (Utusan Malaysia), “4 polis cedera rusuhan di Kuala Terengganu” (Berita Harian), “RM1m damage, 23 held in riot” (New Straits Times), “Ceramah clash” (The Star), “23 held and 7 injured in riot” (The Sun).

Why did a traditionally peaceful ceramah organized by Bersih, a coalition of political parties and NGOs campaigning for free and fair elections degenerate into a confrontation between the police and the crowd, turning it into a “riot” with police firing live bullets, resulting in four being hospitalized and 23 arrested?

Isn’t it a reflection of failure of the police to uphold law and order when what would have been a peaceful ceramah ended up into a “riot” between the police and the crowd?

Who must bear responsibility for the disgraceful incident in Kuala Teregganu — the police or the ceramah organizers?

The police has only itself to blame when its official account, giving full publicity by the mainstream media, both printed and electronic, are suspect as history has shown that official accounts, whether police or that of other authorities, could give distorted and very one-sided accounts.

The best example was the Kesas Highway Incident on 5th November 2000, where I was personally present, with the members of the public who had gathered peacefully for a rally treated like criminals by the police, which indiscriminately fired tear gas and water cannons.

Suhakam conducted a public inquiry in 2001 and these were some of its findings:

• There was an application of double standards on the part of the Police in relation to public assemblies.
• If the rally had been allowed to take place at the Bukit Jalil Stadium, as applied for by the organizers, with Police exercising traffic and crowd control, no untoward incident would have occurred.
• It was the police roadblocks that initially caused the traffic congestion on the Kesas Highway. As a result of the roadblocks, several people not involved with the gathering were held up and subsequently arrested.
• Insufficient time was given for the crowd to disperse. Police personnel continued to chase people even when they were running away from the scene or, in other words, trying to disperse.
• The Suhakam inquiry found that police force was used to stop persons attempting to get away from the scene rather than to overcome resistance to the order to disperse as allowed by law.

From the Suhakam inquiry, it is clear that the Police must bear full responsibility for the Kesas Highway incident. What actually happened in Batu Burok, Kuala Terengganu on Saturday night that a traditionally peaceful ceramah could be turned into a riot with the police firing live bullets at the public?

We do not countenance violence but the full facts must be established whether police mishandling of the situation had largely been responsible for the breakdown of law and order.

Is this another example of what had been mentioned in the Report of the Royal Police Commission — “a peaceful demonstration that turned into rioting was not caused by the action of the demonstrators but on the provocation of the police”? (p. 306)

DAP calls for the immediate establishment of an independent public inquiry into the Kuala Terengganu riot on Saturday night to establish its full facts and circumstances.

Such a public inquiry is imperative as the Kuala Terengganu incident seems to have provided the final proof that all the three major objectives of the 125 recommendations of Royal Police Commission for world-class police service – to reduce crime, to eradicate corruption in the police force and to uphold and respect human rights – had been completely disregarded.

The Kuala Teregganu riot would not have happened if the recommendations of the Royal Police Commission to the police to respect human rights in particular with regard to the fundamental right to hold assemblies, meetings and processions had been taken seriously.

The Royal Police Commission held that the right to hold assemblies, meetings and processions “is one of the most basic and indispensable of the fundamental freedoms necessary for the functioning of a democratic society and is provided for in the Federal Constitution”. (Chap. 10 — 2.3.2i).

The Commission made specific recommendations “to ensure that the rights of any person engaged in lawful advocacy, protest or dissent are not limited by the OCPD and to ensure that the exercise of that right shall not by itself be considered as prejudicial to security”.

If these recommendations of the Royal Police Commission, the country would have been spared the disgraceful episode in Kuala Terengganu and the police saved from another severe blow to public confidence as to how it could have allowed a peaceful ceramah to degenerate into a riot.

The mainstream media have reported that in the riot yesterday, home-made bombs and Molotove cocktails were hurled at the police.

Such accounts are highly suspect unless there are independent verification of the facts, which is why an independent public inquiry must be established.

This is because there were very biased media reports, spreading even falsehoods, over the nine-hour stand-off last Tuesday between a 2,000-strong multi-agency contingent including police FRU, immigration, environment, state and local authorities, backed by riot gear, water cannons, personnel in “space suits” and a helicopter in constant reconnaissance on the one hand and defenceless men, women and children on the other in a most high-handed and unlawful operation to destroy tens of thousands pigs in Malacca.

Some media, especially TV3 alleged that the Paya Mengkuang pig farmers hurled Molotov cocktails at the enforcement officers in the stand-off, when this was a downright lie — but up to now there had been no correction, retraction or apology from TV3 or the media concerned.

Was there an excessive use of force and unreasonable demands in Kuala Terengganu on Saturday night as happened in Paya Mengkuang last Tuesday — with 2,000 personnel from various agencies mobilised to destroy tens of thousands of pigs without any notice whatsoever and subsequently arbitrarily demanding that 90,000 heads of pigs must be culled or removed out of the state in a 17-day period till Sept. 21?