Malaysiakini Your Say | Jun 30, 11

‘For an assembly to be illegal, you must have actually held the assembly. Where does it say in the law that expressing support for a future ‘illegal’ act is illegal?’

Hisham declares Bersih T-shirt illegal

Anonymous_4196: Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein, why is wearing a T-shirt that represents the rakyat’s struggle for free and fair elections illegal?

How about just wearing a yellow T-shirt without any print? How about yellow trousers? How about wearing the yellow Digi teletubby mascot outfit? What if the polis ‘suka-suka’ (on a whim) arrest me for having something yellow on?

Solaris: Communists in Malaya/Malaysia were referred to as ‘reds’. If it’s illegal to wear certain coloured clothes related to an alleged illegal activity, why is it that Umno members are allowed to wear red T-shirts and behave like terrorists outside the PKR headquarters on Monday night?

Dood: I hope the police have enough place in their lock-ups to detain tens of thousands of people come July 9.

Malaysian for Malaysia: In the movie ‘Minority Report’, someone is already judged as guilty before he commits a crime. Remember how it ended?

Until the crime is actually committed, it is not illegal. For a so-called assembly to be illegal, you must have actually held the assembly. Where does it say in the law that expressing support for a future ‘illegal’ act is illegal too?

If I say I support the recent break-in at CIMB bank, am I doing something illegal? Or am I just exercising my right to say whatever the hell I want?

Lulu: This seems to be a new law. When was it passed in Parliament?

Josephine: If Bersih T-shirts are banned, what about T-shirts with naughty messages, or words with profanity? It is scary to think that our home minister, who comes with a pedigree of two former Umno presidents, will very possibly be our future prime minister if Umno still rules.

To cut short the agony, perhaps really, instead of marching on the streets, Bersih should just despatch groups of 100 members (or more) clad in their Bersih tees and offer themselves to all the police stations of the country. That would also make a statement.

Anonymous: We cannot wear yellow, we cannot wear black, we cannot wear red… Can BN and Umno tell us what colours are allowed? Birthday suit, okay?

Kingfisher: Ordinary citizens will find it very hard to understand what appears to be a pathological disapproval, or even fear, by the government to the clearly defined objectives of Bersih to conduct a peaceful rally for promoting/protecting fair and equitable electoral processes in our nation’s democratic elections.

The heightened sense of warning and threats against the rally supporters and the detentions and questioning of legitimate organisers of the rally will not go down well with the silent majority of the people who are the electorate.

Many will be left wandering as to why PM Najib Razak, who lately has made policy commitments to establishing a fair, equitable and progressive society would stand on the sidelines and allow the instruments of law enforcement to prematurely deal with this issue.

It is not wise for any nation that seeks progress towards democratic maturity to engage the instruments of law and order indiscriminately for political purposes.

David Dass: The minister says that the Bersih T-shirt is an item of clothing related to an illegal activity. What is that illegal activity? Is the illegal activity the proposed illegal demonstration?

It cannot be illegal for a person to wear a yellow T-shirt at home. It cannot be illegal for someone to wear a yellow T-shirt with the acronym ‘Bersih’ emblazoned on the front and back at home. Or in the park. Or on a bus. So is there must be a moment in time when wearing that yellow Bersih T-shirt becomes illegal.

Wearing a T-shirt cannot be illegal because it is quite normal for people to wear T-shirts. There are Umno T-shirts. PAS T-shirts. Microsoft T-shirts. It is not as if a T-shirt is like a gun, the mere possession of which without a permit is illegal.

Anak Bangsa Malaysia: First it was black T-shirts, then it was candles, then it was pictures of Altantuya Shaariibuu, now it is yellow T-shirts.

The fascist Umno-BN regime is terrified but seeks to project its terror onto the people by threatening violence, aided and abetted by the uniformed henchmen that now represent Malaysia’s most contemptible institution: the police force.

Hishammuddin will go down in history as a blubbering but cruel fool who declared war on articles of clothing in order to defend a corrupt and racist regime.

Ambiga and panel to meet IGP tomorrow

Swipenter: Inspector-general of police Ismail Omar, maybe you should act like your predecessor and carry out preventive measures, not unlike Ops Lalang, as recently asserted by Dr Mahathir Mohamad when he was PM.

You could save PM Najib and his cousin a lot of ridicule by taking such burden off their shoulders by declaring you are responsible for such drastic measures to prevent “chaos and anarchy” from happening in the country because of Bersih 2.0. Then you could be assured of your top cop post for many, many more years to come.

DannyLoHH: The police has gone overboard, arresting people for wearing T-shirts. Now, under what law that they arrest people donning garments that is in support of Bersih? There is no such law that states it is illegal to wear a T-shirt bearing the Bersih logo.

Are the police upholding the law or are they becoming a law unto themselves? Or is the home minister now God that a decree by him is a divine law that cannot be broken?

Please tell, which part of Bersih is illegal? Is it because it is demanding for a free and fair elections? Is it the part where it asks for the strengthening public institution? Or is it the part where it asks for no more dirty politics?

The excuse given to outlaw the Bersih rally is not based on what Bersih stand for. As for the fear of chaos and public disorder, Bersih had pledged a peaceful rally and is willing to engage the police to make sure of that.

On the contrary, police is the one acting defensive and now, arresting people without any legal basis.

Quigonbond: Everything the IGP says reminds me of the wisdom in the book – ‘How to Win an Argument’. What the IGP says are falsehoods and pure conjectures. He premises his argument that people are angry, and from there leads to a slippery slope of violence, public disorder and disruption of national security.

But all of Malaysia is entitled to ask – who exactly is angry? Are all 28 million Malaysians angry, or just Umnoputras, Perkasa and the editors of Utusan Malaysia? Assuming that there are two million of them, then what about the other 26 million who are pissed that BN abuses the system?

The IGP couldn’t even come clean with what foreign elements the police has identified in their intelligence report, knowing full well that the BN government is already losing the war for public opinion badly.

OMG: The only foreign elements here are those elements foreign to BN – honesty, transparency, credibility and justice.