Duo arrested at Brickfields rally yesterday released
PUCHONG: The two men detained at yesterday’s anti-khat rally in Brickfields have been released on police bail today.
The duo are rally organiser K Umagandhan of the Naan Oru Tamilan education group and Chinese educationist Tan Boon Tak, who came to help the organiser.
Kuala Lumpur police chief Datuk Seri Mazlan Lazim confirmed the matter to the press today.
Yesterday, pro-Tamil education group staged a rally in Brickfields to oppose the introduction of khat in vernacular schools.
“It was meant to be a peaceful rally. Umagandhan was only there to disperse the crowd once he was aware that there was no valid authorisation,” the organiser’s lawyer, Devaneson Ganeson said.
Commenting on the rally, DAP’s Ronnie Liu said that there was a misperception that the rally was out to cause trouble.
“But they did not cause trouble. They negotiated with the police to address (the attendees) and then dispersed the crowd.
“Tan, knowing the police allowed him to read a statement, proceeded to do so.
“I told the police, under such a case, they shouldn’t keep the duo anymore. They must be released,” he said.
Another lawyer of the rally organiser, M. Dinesh, said they had to proceed with the rally as the authorities only told them not to go ahead with it at the last minute.
“The problem was that the news about the event went viral. We feared that certain quarters would hijack the event and turned it into something else.
“So, the rally took only about 15 minutes, and we dispersed the crowds in an orderly manner,” he said, adding that at least 1,500 people showed up at the rally.
Dinesh said the organiser’s interest was only pertaining to the introduction of Jawi writing in vernacular schools, and they have nothing to do with a planned rally today which organised by someone else and has already been cancelled.
“The rally was only focusing on that issue and nothing else. If there were other people who touched on something else, they were not part of the rally,” he said.
Dinesh also said they had a discussion with Federal Territories Minister Khalid Samad on Thursday who asked them to cancel the rally over safety concerns.
“He did say he can’t promise a permit (to hold the rally) but will try.
“He asked us to cancel the rally. We said we can’t do that due to the short notice between the rejection and the event date.
“People were anticipating for the event and we told him that we must proceed to avoid the rally from being hijacked,” said Dinesh.
Dinesh said the event was to show that they did not hate the Jawi writing and only disagreed with its introduction in vernacular schools.
“If the government wants to introduce Jawi in vernacular schools, it should be optional and taught as part of a co-curriculum outside of school time.
“For Tamil schools, introduce the option to learn Jawi and Mandarin, and for Chinese schools, the option to learn Jawi and Tamil,” he added.
