Rally Ends Peacefully Without Incident - Police

KUALA LUMPUR, July 26 (Bernama) -- The rally at Dataran Merdeka today concluded peacefully without any untoward incident with about 18,000 individuals attending.

Acting Kuala Lumpur police chief Datuk Mohamed Usuf Jan Mohamad said they were grateful for the good cooperation shown by participants, who did not create any problems throughout the rally.

“Everything went smoothly, even though there were one or two things that might not have been agreed upon initially, but were resolved well,” he told reporters after the rally ended this evening.

He also advised the organisers to be more transparent in sharing information with the authorities in the future to ease security and logistic controls.

“Malaysians have the right to gather, and to gather peacefully. In terms of safety, that’s the most important. Sometimes if we don’t allow an event, it usually is due to a safety issue, as that is a responsibility of the police,” he said, adding that 3,000 police officers and personnel were mobilised to ensure safety throughout the duration of the rally.

Mohamed Usof also said the police would study the speeches delivered by several leaders at the rally, especially if there were elements touching on 3R (religion, race, royalty) or seditious in nature.

“The right to gather peacefully is there, but we are still bound by existing laws. If there are violations, action will be taken according to legal provisions,” he said, adding that there were over 60 reports lodged regarding the rally, mostly by those who disagreed with it being organised.

An internal postmortem to access aspects that could be improved would also be conducted, Mohamed Usof said.

-- BERNAMA