PETALING JAYA: International observers will be present at tomorrow’s mass rally in support of jailed opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, organisers said yesterday.

PKR Youth’s #KitaLawan movement said that a delegation of foreign observers from human rights organisations as well as from the Malaysian Bar Council will be present to monitor the rally.

“We have informed local and international legal and human rights organisations of the plan to hold the #KitaLawan rally on March 7, 2015,” the group said in a statement.

It said the declaration by police that the rally is illegal was “baseless” as the right to gather peacefully is enshrined in the Federal Constitution.

“The opinions of lawyers and law experts are consistent in explaining that the job of the police is not to stop but to make it easier and help in the movement of the rally.”

This comes after Dang Wangi police chief ACP Zainol Samah said rally organisers had failed to give police enough advance notice to hold the rally as required under the law.

The police had also suggested three locations for the gathering, but #KitaLawan organisers had decided to go ahead with the demonstration outside Sogo in Jalan Raja Laut, Kuala Lumpur.

The police ban on the gathering follows a police report lodged by the management of the Sogo shopping complex against the rally organisers, on the grounds that the demonstration would be bad for business. To date, six police reports have been lodged by individuals and business entities against #KitaLawan.

The rally tomorrow is to push for Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s resignation and to demand for the release of Anwar.

Anwar’s sodomy conviction and five-year jail sentence was upheld by the Federal Court on Feb 10. His supporters said it was a ploy to end his political career.

Lawyers have said the Peaceful Assembly Act cannot be used to criminalise rallies, based on a landmark ruling by the Court of Appeal last year that upheld the right to peaceful gatherings.

Lawyers have also warned that police seem to be using a new “tactic” to nab demonstrators by using the Penal Code instead.

The #KitaLawan rally will begin at 3pm at three locations — Central Market, Masjid Jamek and the PAS headquarters in Jalan Raja Laut — before the march to Sogo. — The Malaysian Insider 

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on March 6, 2015.