KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 24 — The ban on raising banners criticising Israeli leaders and chanting takbir at the peaceful gathering on Sunday (October 22) is not the position of the government or peace-loving Muslims in this country.
Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said the ban is at the discretion of the organisers responsible for ensuring peace and public order.
"In Parliament, I emphasised that when I stand for the government's position and I convey with responsibility, our recognition to them (Palestine)... but the question is whether Benjamin Netanyahu can be criticised, our position is clear, the fact that we recognise the struggle of the Palestinian people, by itself we deny our support (to Israel).
"But if in a gathering with 300, 400 people, an organisation may impose the dos and the don'ts based on the facts of the incident at the time, and it does not fully reflect the government's stance," he said during the Minister's Question Time in the Dewan Rakyat today.
Saifuddin was responding to Machang MP Wan Ahmad Fayhsal Wan Ahmad Kamal's supplementary question on whether there is a new law to take down banners denouncing the Israeli leader.
Elaborating further, he said the Peaceful Assembly Act 2012 required the organisers to ensure they and others did not commit acts or issue statements that could inculcate bad feelings or hostility among the public.
The recent meeting between Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as well as the Crown Prince cum Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman, also showed Malaysia's efforts to save the Palestinian people jointly.
"The main issue is solidarity with the Palestinian people who are recognised by sympathetic countries as a sovereign country, but there is no homeland either in Gaza or the West Bank where the land is colonised.
"The main issue now is that the lives of two million people are at risk, the Israeli army is already at the border, and the main issue is how to get the people out of the besieged Gaza land, and this is what the Prime Minister did when he met Erdogan, the Crown Prince, and became a coordinator on behalf of Asean," Saifuddin said.
Answering Wan Ahmad Fayhsal's original question as to whether the government has issued guidelines on what should not be said in a peaceful demonstration, the minister said existing acts like the Penal Code, the Sedition Act 1948, and the Communications and Multimedia Act, are sufficient in managing a public gathering.
— Bernama
