Lim Kit Siang

A totally synthetic crisis

The Police is creating a totally synthetic crisis out of nothing, as no gathering or demonstration is being planned by Pakatan Rakyat in or near Parliament tomorrow.

Police roadblocks, causing massive traffic jams in Kuala Lumpur today and which will be even worse tomorrow, are not only pointless but completely unwarranted and unjustifiable.

As no gathering or demonstration in or around Parliament is being organised by Pakatan Rakyat tomorrow, the news report below paints a very surreal situation in the Federal capital:

July 13, 2008 21:01 PM

Police Tell Public Not To Join Tomorrow’s Assembly

KUALA LUMPUR, July 13 (Bernama) — Police today obtained a court order prohibiting the public from participating in the assembly in front of Parliament House, here tomorrow morning.

Sentul District Police Chief, ACP Ahmad Sofian Md Yassin said the gathering tomorrow was illegal and reminded the public that those participating in the assembly, which did not have a permit, would be charged under the Police Act 1967.

“We did not receive any application from the individuals who planned to hold the gathering,” he said at a media conference at his office, here Sunday.

He said anyone participating in the gathering would be investigated under Section 27(5) of the Police Act 1967 and could be fined not less than RM2,000 and not more than RM10,000 or a jail term of at least one year or both upon conviction.

Ahmad Sofian said several roadblocks around Kuala Lumpur had been set up beginning this afternoon until midnight tomorrow.

Several police personnel had also been deployed at strategic points and public places.

It is learnt that the gathering tomorrow was being organised by certain parties to protest against the fuel price hike.

In another development, Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) advisor Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said in a statement tonight that he and Pakatan Rakyat were not involved in organising the assembly at Parliament House tomorrow.

“I regret that the police had linked my name and Pakatan Rakyat in obtaining an exparte Magistrate’s Court order by the Sentul District Police Chief dated July 13, 2008,” he said.

He said the court order was slanderous and was an abuse of the legal process.

Anwar said he would instruct the Pakatan Rakyat lawyers to initiate legal action to set aside the order.

— BERNAMA