Pakatan Rakyat (Peoples' Alliance) has announced a mass rally in a show of solidarity for Raja Petra Kamaruddin and DAP MP Teresa Kok now being held under the Internal Security Act (ISA) and to demand their release.
The police have issued a permit for this rally (under repressive laws in Malaysia all gatherings require a police permit)
The rally will be peaceful, but the organisers and those attending will need to be aware that there may well be agents provocateur mingling in with the crowd, troublemakers from the political and perhaps the religious lunatic fringe, who may try to stir up trouble. It is not too far fetched to postulated that the some agents provocateur may be from groups within the Barisan Nasional, or even the police themselves? Anything is possible!
But let us hope that there will be no trouble makers, and that the rally will proceed in an orderly and peaceful manner.
The rally is being held tonight (Monday 15th September 2008) from 19:00; the eve of Malaysia Day (16th September) which is opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim's self imposed deadline to take over the government through defections of MPs from the ruling BN coalition.
Extracts from the Malaysakini website:
The opposition alliance said it expected some 30,000 supporters to gather for the rally in Kelana Jaya stadium on Monday night to call for the release of the two still detained, after the journalist was freed Saturday.
It will be held on the eve of September 16, Anwar's deadline to seize power and also the day in 1963 when Sabah and Sarawak joined together with Malaya to form modern Malaysia.
"We gained independence but Malaysians continue to live under repression. We believe Malaysia Day should symbolise freedom, justice and equality," said PKR information chief Tian Chua.
"The gathering at Kelana Jaya stadium is to express our solidarity for the two people held under the draconian security law and to demand their freedom," he told AFP.
Rights groups have condemned the use of the Internal Security Act (ISA), which allows for indefinite detention without trial, and the United States summoned Malaysia's top envoy in Washington in protest over the arrests.
A posse ad esse
From possibility to actuality
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