Government-sponsored Forums not the same as NGO Forums

Aliran welcomes the Selangor Menteri Besar's announcement that the state government will hold a public meeting to allow concerned and aggrieved Malaysians to discuss the current water crisis in the Klang Valley.

That said, we feel that this gesture doesn't negate the impact of the police banning the FOMCA-sponsored public forum on water woes recently. The fact remains that the democratic right of citizens to assemble and to discuss peacefully issues of public importance has been taken away by the state.

It needs to be reiterated that in a thriving civil society, ordinary citizens have every right to initiate public meetings and discussions in a civilised manner - just as the government has every right to hold meet-the-people sessions and public rallies. Public meetings do not have to be government-initiated and sanctioned.

A government-sponsored public meeting would limit debate and discussion, reduce the opportunity for critical views to be freely aired, and make the participating public wary about voicing their grievances.

Besides, if it is true that FOMCA’s public forum could have posed "security hazards" as the police argued, then one is compelled to ask why the police do not see a similar threat emerging from the Selangor state-sanctioned public forum to discuss the same ‘hot’ topic.
 

Dr Mustafa K Anuar
Exco Member
9 June 1998