Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Time to wake up

New bills were passed recently in parliament.

Parliament passes new Bill to manage law and order

The ones that are a cause for concern are

- police officers have new powers to issue pre-emptive "move-on" orders, which will be in written form, ordering demonstrators not to congregate at the intended rally area, or give them a chance to leave without getting arrested.

- police will also have powers to stop the filming of ongoing security operations and seize such materials so that operations are not compromised.

First of all, I would to comment on the article itself because reading it made me feel like puking. Instead of being a neutral party, they sounded supportive towards the justification of the passing of the new bills when it is not their job in the first place.

The two new bills mentioned above means the police can simply ask you to take your leave from where you are. They can also simply confiscate your recording devices. All these at their sole discretion. It is so highly subjected to abuse because it can be any vicinity and any 'security' operations.

Let me give you a scenario. Under the law, any public protest of at least five people without a police permit is deemed illegal but we all know that don't matter. The police can still lock you up even if you are alone. They have other laws to do that. Previously, video recordings by those arrested provided an alternative view of what actually happened, countering those by the police. With the new bills, they can prevent the recording of an incident and no one will know what actually happened.

The new bills are similar to many laws in Singapore that has got to do with civil rights. Many were so vague like the Miscellaneous Offences Act which can be used if nothings else can to charge you.

Make full use of that voting slip people before that is taken away from you too.

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