(Sept 8): Peaceful assemblies should be accepted as a new norm, a former Umno minister said today, after Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak called the recent Bersih 4 protest "demo-crazy" instead of being an act of democracy.

Former higher education deputy minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah said Malaysians today should accept dissent in various forms, including peaceful gatherings, instead of making a huge fuss over it.

"If we can accept dissent in its various forms, including peaceful assemblies as the new norm, then we don't have to look over and over again at poorly presented arguments," he said of the excuses usually given by the authorities against public gatherings.

Among these excuses, he said, were that rallies were "not part of Malaysian culture", that they would cause traffic congestion and disrupt businesses.

By accepting peaceful rallies as a new norm, Saifuddin said it will also put an end to threats and intimidation against civil society groups and organisers of such events.

"It will also put a stop to some parts of society who use the racial-religious card," he said a roundtable discussion on "The Right to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly: Lessons from Bersih 4" today.

Najib had said street demonstrations are not part of Malaysian culture.

He had also said the current state of the country's economy is not as bad as it was during the Asian economic crisis of 1997 and 1998, yet there was no effort to topple the government at the time nor requests for then prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad to resign.

Organised by electoral reform group Bersih 2.0, the Bersih 4 rally two weeks ago was aimed at getting Putrajaya to embark on institutional reforms as well as pressuring Najib to step down.

The organisers estimated that up to 500,000 attended the event, which the government had declared illegal.

Saifuddin said today dissent in many forms is part of democracy and this also included peaceful assemblies like the Bersih 4 rally.

"With the gazetting of the Peaceful Assembly Act, we should understand better than peaceful assembly is allowed and part of democracy," said the the Global Moderates of Movement CEO.

Bar Council human rights co-chair Andrew Khoo questioned why the police and some leaders insisted that the Bersih 4 rally is illegal when the Peaceful Assembly Act (PAA) has done away with the concept of illegal assembly.

"Why are leaders and the police stuck in this mindset? This harks back to the idea that they are still fixated in a bygone area and that they are unable or unwilling to move on and accept that laws have changed," he said.

National Human Rights Society (Hakam) president Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan said she is unconvinced that the police can declare the Bersih 4 rally illegal.

"I am not sure they can, they have to tell us under what power they are acting because does this mean they can declare everything illegal?

"If they declare something illegal and people go ahead with it, then what laws have been breached?" she asked. – The Malaysian Insider