Sentul OCPD ACP Zakaria Pagan up on stage to declare the party over. – Picture by Choo Choy May
By Clara Chooi | The Malaysian Insider
KUALA LUMPUR, March 6 — Police put a stop to a dinner and ceramah organised by the Kepong DAP here tonight.
The function, which features star speakers from Pakatan Rakyat like Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Lim Kit Siang and Datuk Husam Musa, was called to an abrupt halt at 10pm when the police raided the premises.
About 1,500 people in attendance booed loudly when Sentul OCPD ACP Zakaria Pagan took to the stage and announced that the ceramah was cancelled.
He justified the action by pointing out that the function’s permit was only to organise a dinner and not a ceramah with political speeches.
After negotiating with Lim and Kepong MP Dr Tan Seng Giaw, however, ACP Zakaria relented and allowed each speaker 10 minutes to deliver their speeches.
The decision, despite receiving cheers from the audience, drew flak from the Pakatan leaders.
Husam, who was at first stopped when he approached the rostrum for his turn, said that as a human being, every individual had mouths that allowed them not only to eat but also to speak.
Anwar stopped himself at every juncture as he approached sensitive topics like the missing jet engines and the Teoh Beng Hock.
“Teoh Beng Hock apparently killed himself, they claim. He went to the window, played with it and then accidentally fell and accidentally died. But hang on, we cannot speak about this,” he said, looking around at the team of about 20 policemen who were surrounding the stage.
Later, Dr Tan told The Malaysian Insider that he had obtained the right permit to hold the dinner.
“When they give permits to political parties, of course they are aware that we are going to give speeches,” he said.
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Tweets @limkitsiang :
Sad day 4democracy n human rights 53 yrs after Merdeka Malaysians reduced 2having animal rights of eating but not human rights of speech
03/06/2010 11:03 PM
This black episode symbolises 1st anniversary of Najib’s 1Malaysia Will ask Najib n Hishamuddin in Parliament – what r both of u afraid of?
03/06/2010 11:06 PM
Police earlier stopped speeches at DAP Kepong dinner after senggiaw anthonyloke korming spoken saying political speeches not allwd – 1Msia?
03/06/2010 11:18 PM
Finally negotiated with OCPD 2allow Anwar n I 2speak 10 mins each on ‘non-sensitive’ issues Big blackmark 4Najib’s democracy index
03/06/2010 11:22 PM
@wathyna Police permit applied n issued w anwar n my name listed but police objected 2’political’ speeches when politics touches everything
03/07/2010 12:32 AM