POLICE ARREST HUMAN RIGHTS DAY MARCHERS; ANOTHER

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 KUALA LUMPUR 001691

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE FOR EAP/MTS AND DRL -- JANE KIM

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/10/2027
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KDEM ASEC MY
SUBJECT: POLICE ARREST HUMAN RIGHTS DAY MARCHERS; ANOTHER
PROTEST PLANNED FOR DECEMBER 11

REF: A. KUALA LUMPUR 1684 -- GOM TRIES TO KEEP LID ON


B. KUALA LUMPUR 1664 - WARNINGS ON FUTURE PROTESTS

C. KUALA LUMPUR 1647 - POLICE BREAK UP PROTEST

D. KUALA LUMPUR 1646 - ARRESTS AHEAD OF RALLY

E. KUALA LUMPUR 1613 - BERSIH RALLY DRAWS TENS OF
THOUSANDS

F. KUALA LUMPUR 1377 - RALLY TURNS TO RIOT IN
TERENGGANU

Classified By: Classified By: Political Section Chief Mark D. Clark for
reasons 1.4 (b and d).

Summary
--------------


1. (C) Malaysian police on December 9 arrested organizers of
an attempted march in Kuala Lumpur by lawyers, activists and
opposition party officials in support of freedom of assembly.
The short-lived march involved some 100 participants and
took place after the Bar Council, under police pressure,
cancelled its planned march to commemorate Human Rights Day.
Police charged those arrested, four lawyers and four human
rights activists, with participating in an illegal assembly,
obstructing a public servant, and disobeying a police order
to disperse. Police on December 9 also arrested some
prominent organizers of the large November 10 BERSIH rally.
The Bar Council president, prominent opposition figure Anwar
Ibrahim, and other opposition politicians condemned the
arrests. Prime Minister Abdullah defended the police
actions, saying lawyers are not above the law, while other
government figures called for even tougher action. In
response to events on December 9, opposition organizers
reactivated plans to demonstrate at the Parliament on
December 11, a protest that seems assured of meeting with a
firm police response. With PM Abdullah under pressure from
within his own party to take a hard line, authorities now
appear unable to move away from the approach that any public
assembly critical of the government is a threat to public
order. End Summary.

World Human Rights Day March Ends With Arrests
-------------- -


2. (SBU) In the wake of a series of anti-government protests
and government warnings against more public rallies
(reftels),approximately 100 lawyers (including opposition
party officials) and human rights activists attempted to
conduct a public march in downtown Kuala Lumpur on Sunday,
December 9, to demonstrate their support for freedom of
assembly. The march coincided with the Malaysian Bar
Council's commemorative events for World Human Rights Day.
The informal march took place after the Bar Council decided
to cancel its planned march following police insistence that
the Council apply for a permit. In order to support the
principle of freedom of peaceful assembly, the Bar Council
decided not to apply for a permit, but also to forego the
march in the face of warnings from the police that they would
arrest illegal marchers on sight.


3. (SBU) Poloffs observed the December 9 events. Gathering
at 7:30 A.M., the marchers, heavily outnumbered by police and
a strong contingent of local and international media, made
initial statements to journalists and waited for the signal
to begin walking. Marchers carried a banner with the slogan:
"Lawyers for Freedom of Assembly - With the People." One of
the march organizers, Latheefa Koya, negotiated with the
police officer in charge and obtained a 10-minute grace
period to march from their start point to the Bar Council's
headquarters building. The group proceeded peacefully under
the eye of the police and media. About halfway to the Bar
Council headquarters, police halted the procession, and
ordered them to disperse, and organizers asked the marchers
to comply. Soon after, police detained eight march
organizers and activists under a swarm of media cameras.
Following the arrests, the remaining marchers lost cohesion
but continued to the Bar Council.


4. (SBU) Police charged those arrested, four lawyers and four
human rights activists, with participating in an illegal
assembly, obstructing a public servant, and disobeying a
police order to disperse. Those arrested include two senior
officials from the opposition People's Justice Party (PKR),
party vice president R. Sivarasa and PKR supreme council
member Latheefa Koya; Amer Hamzah, Vice-Chair of the Bar
Council's Human rights Committee; N. Surendran, Bar Council
Human Rights Committee member; and Eric Paulson, former
coordinator of SUARAM, a leading human rights NGO. (Note:

KUALA LUMP 00001691 002 OF 003


Sivarasa is a 2005 IVP alumnus.) Arrested later in the day
was the Bar Council's Human rights Committee Chairman, Edmund
Bon, whom police also charged with obstructing Kuala Lumpur
City Hall officers from performing their duties. The city
hall workers were attempting to remove human rights banners
from the Bar Council's premises.

Bar Council, Opposition Leaders Condemn Police Actions
-------------- --------------


5. (U) Bar Council Chairperson Ambiga Sreenevasan, expressed
deep disappointment in the government and police actions.
She and a team of lawyers went to police headquarters to
speak with the detained individuals, but were denied access.
Ambiga described the day's events as a disgrace for the
police to arrest the individuals on the eve of Word Human
Rights Day. Ex-deputy Prime Minister PKR de facto leader
Anwar Ibrahim said government authorities were using the law
"to subvert freedom and to suppress the people's fundamental
democratic right for peaceful assembly." Lim Kit Siang, the
opposition leader in parliament, described the arrests as "a
blot on human rights in Malaysia" that portrayed "clear
abuses of police powers, excessive use of force and public
display of police contempt for human rights."

Roundup of BERSIH organizers resumes
--------------


6. (SBU) The government also took further action on December
9 against opposition party organizers of the November 10
BERSIH rally (ref D),which turned out Malaysia's largest
street protest in nine years. Police arrested PKR
Information Chief Tian Chua, Islamic Party of Malaysia (PAS)
Vice President Mohamad Sabu and twelve other PAS members who
previously had been released on bail. The Government charged
the fourteen men in Kuala Lumpur courts on December 10 with
unlawful assembly and obstructing a public servant. PAS
President Abdul Hadi Awang lamented the Government's renewed
actions against participants of the BERSIH rally and
commented that Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi was steering
the nation towards a "police state." PKR Information Bureau
spokesperson Elizabeth Wong also responded: "If the
government believes its actions will frighten us from
exercising our fundamental right to assemble peacefully, they
are sorely mistaken."

December 11 Protest Plans Reactivated
--------------


7. (SBU) In reaction to the December 9 arrests, opposition
members of parliament from both PAS and DAP informed poloffs
on December 10 that they had reactivated planning for a
BERSIH rally on December 11 in front of Parliament (ref A);
opposition interest in this event had appeared to die out
prior to December 9. PAS supreme council members further
commented that at least 2,000 people would be present to
protest proposed constitutional amendments seeking to extend
the age of retirement for federal election commissioners.

GOM Defends Actions as Necessary for Public Order;
Senior UMNO Officials Call for Harsher Measures
-------------- --------------


8. (C) Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi defended the police
actions on December 9, saying lawyers are not above the law,
"if they breach or violate the law, action will certainly be
taken against them. There is no discrimination in this
matter." In separate remarks on December 10 to corporate
leaders, PM Abdullah noted that preserving the country's
security requires a "sense of accountability to the whole,
rather than the few. The Prime Minister emphasized, "if
there is a choice between public safety and public freedoms,
I do not hesitate to say here that public safety will always
win." Other senior officials in the dominant United Malays
National Organization (UMNO) party called for a stronger
response. Mohammad Ali Rustam, UMNO Vice-President and
Melaka Chief Minister, urged authorities to invoke the
Internal Security Act (ISA, which allows for detention
without trial),arguing that the marchers were "traitors" for
going against the order of the authorities. Several other
UMNO officials publicly supported the use of ISA. Not all
senior UMNO voices urged a hard-line approach. Former Deputy
Prime Minister Musa Hitam, in an interview published December
9, argued for a more balanced approach and noted that after
50 years of independence Malaysia could accommodate peaceful
assemblies. (Note: According to two Embassy sources, Musa
Hitam advised PM Abdullah not to use the ISA to halt

KUALA LUMP 00001691 003 OF 003


anti-government protests. End Note.)

Comment
--------------


9. (C) With a national election seemingly around the corner,
and some Malays incensed over a November 25 ethnic Indian
demonstration interpreted as a challenge to the social
compact and Malay supremacy, PM Abdullah's government is
under pressure from conservatives within the UMNO party to
take very strong action against further anti-government
protests. Increasingly the authorities are making good on
their repeated threats to arrest those organizing public
demonstrations without police permits. If enough arrests are
made and defendants held without bail, police could keep many
organizers off the streets for extended periods even without
invoking the politically-charged ISA. As some of his
advisors recognize, Abdullah politically must find a balance
between demands within his party that he gets tough with
anti-government demonstrators, and the risk that such actions
prolong or deepen the current showdown with opposition
activists, creating martyrs and attracting international
criticism in the process. With neither the government nor
opposition organizers backing down, authorities now appear
unable to move away from the approach that any public
assembly critical of the government is a threat to public
order. The planned December 11 protest at the Parliament
presents the next immediate test and we expect police action
to stop this demonstration.
KEITH