Passing of Assembly Bill shows total disregard of people's voice

The highly controversial and widely condemned Peaceful Assembly Bill was passed by Barisan National MPs in spite of protests. It was significant that just hours after hundreds of lawyers staged a peaceful walk to Parliament to protest the Bill which was being debated in the august house, the bill was passed with six minor amendments.

If this act is not a sign of arrogance what is it then? To add fuel to the fire of frustration, the Law minister was arrogant to say that the Bar Council does not represent the people.

Who do they represent then? If the views of the Bar Council, a professional body that represents the legal fraternity, is not taken seriously by the government especially when it concerns the formulation and tabling of a legal document in parliament, how can we expect it to listen to the views of the ordinary man on the street?

The least the government could have done is to delay passing the bill and engage the Bar Council and others who oppose the bill and then proceed with appropriate amendments followed by a more comprehensive debate of the bill before passing. If it had done so it would have been seen to be listening to the people and not ignoring them as it has done now.

This is not the first time the government had ignored public outcry over its moves. Even when it knew the people were against what it was doing it just could not be bothered but continued to bulldoze decisions. It abandoned the basic concept of democracy, the principle of consultation, before making any decision affecting the people.

The way the Peaceful Assembly Bill was handled shows total disregard for the voice of the rakyat. The 13th general election gives us an opportunity to express our views in a peaceful and democratic manner. We did not have a choice before but today we do have one and we must make a wise choice, to retain or to change.