CHAIRMAN’S REVIEW into RMP policies to foster and sustain inclusive police services and prevent human rights violations. SUHAKAM would like to enhance its efforts in this regard and conveyed this message to the top management of the RMP during its working meetings. SUHAKAM has always acknowledged the commitments and contributions of the Royal Malaysia Police to our society and particularly point out to the difficult responsibility imposed on the police during public assemblies which is a fundamental right of citizens. SUHAKAM commends the RMP for their handling and management of the recent public assemblies. In connection to this, it is SUHAKAM’s intention to make the police accept that there is no such thing as an “illegal assembly”. Following the repeal of Section 27 of the Police Act 1967, the concept of illegal assembly no longer exists in law, and assemblies cannot be banned. Prior notification of an assembly is not to be treated as seeking for permission or authorisation from the authorities, and is only for the purposes of facilitating the exercise of the right to freedom of assembly. In 2016, SUHAKAM dealt with a total of 879 complaints alleging various human rights violations including the right to nationality; native customary land rights; right to seek asylum and refugee status; arbitrary arrests, detention and exile. 80 complaints were made by the Orang Asli alleging continued encroachment of native customary land for the purposes of logging, mining and farming; pollution of rivers and rapid deforestation; lack of basic amenities including electricity and water supply; and issues related to the education of Orang Asli children. In Sabah, complaints were mainly on the right to nationality and native customary land rights. During the past year, SUHAKAM attracted considerable media coverage on a range of human rights issues. Included in this was our work in respect of the monitoring of public assemblies. These were ‘Protest against TPPA’ on 23 January; ‘MO1 Rally’ on 27 August; ‘Bersih 5 Convoy in Sekinchan’ on 15 October and ‘Bersih 5’ on 19 November. To the enforcement authorities, and to some extent Malaysians, protestors exercising their right to freedom of peaceful assembly seem to have a negative image. Although the majority of protests in mature and liberal democracies are non-violent, public assemblies are still assumed to be problematical, inconvenient or wrong. It is our view that for this reason, the authorities have attempted to define the right to freedom of assembly in a limited and narrow fashion. SUHAKAM has clarified that through the Peaceful Assembly Act 2012 (PAA), all Malaysian citizens have the right to assemble peaceably and without arms, including civil servants, university students, academicians and teachers, and that it would be in contravention of Article 10(1) of the Federal Constitution if the right to freedom of peaceful assembly is curtailed through government, university and/or departmental circulars or rulings. 4 SUHAKAM ANNUAL REPORT 2016 suhakam 2new.indd 4 3/23/17 5:54 PM