My Crazy Country

From BBC News

Hundreds of lawyers in Malaysia have staged a rally against proposed laws that would ban street protests.

The government has promised to get rid of a rule requiring people to get a police permit to hold a demonstration.

But it wants to replace that rule with a ban on street protests and a ban on people under 21 demonstrating.

The lawyers say the new proposals are more repressive than the old laws, and they are calling on the government to ditch the plans.

Prime Minister Najib Razak, who is expected to call an election early next year, has been trying to boost his popularity by overhauling the country’s web of security laws.

But his government’s Peaceful Assembly Act has caused outrage among critics and rights groups.

‘Voice of the people’
About 500 lawyers marched to Parliament on Tuesday, hours before the law was due to be debated.

They chanted “freedom to assembly” and “freedom to the people”, before police stopped most of them from entering the complex.

They say the government is trying to rush through the law without proper consultation.

“We hope the government will listen to the voice of the people,” said Bar Council President Lim Chee Wee, according to the Associated Press news agency.

Last week, the government announced the repeal of three emergency proclamations providing for detention without trial.

Much of the legislation dates back to the 1960s and 70s when Malaysia was racked by tensions between Muslim Malays and the ethnic Chinese, which at one point exploded into bloody riots.

Thousands of people are being held under the proclamations, according to a report on arbitrary detention by the UN Human Rights Council last year.

Campaigners say that many of those being held are petty criminals who have been denied due process.

Mr Najib also promised in September to repeal another law, the Internal Security Act, which has its origins in the anti-Communist legislation of the British colonial period and has been used for decades to detain and intimidate government critics.