A women's organisation has asked the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) to probe the denial of a police permit to hold an anti-rape rally late July following the spate of violence against women in recent months.

Yesterday, the All Women's Action Society (Awam) sent a three-page letter to Suhakam complaining about the police's curtailment of its freedom of expression and assembly in organising the 'Citizens against Rape: Make Public Spaces Safe - Towards a Violence-free Society' rally.

The rally was finally held at a private college on Aug 3 after two postponements, and was attended by 500 people including Women and Family Development Minister Shahrizat Abdul Jalil and several ruling and opposition politicians.

Harsh measures

The complaint letter was jointly signed by Awam vice-president Judith Koh and executive director Maria Chin Abdullah (photo), who was also the organiser of the event originally scheduled for July 20.

They said Awam had applied for a permit three weeks before the event and had followed proper procedures.

"We would like to stress that at no time did Awam or any person associated with it consider including violent or non-peaceful activities as part of the event," read the complaint.

"In addition, we did not feel that there would be much problem as Awam had previously organised various events in the open."

They said all these events were granted police permits.

But despite all the "socially-responsible aims" (for the anti-rape) rally, they said the police were not supportive in their dealings with Awam.

"Not only did they refuse a permit, they resorted to harsh measures such as threatening to arrest people who turned up for it. We are extremely baffled at the reaction of the authorities."

Awam wants a public explanation from the police and the Home Affairs Ministry on their objection to the people's right to participate in a public gathering and their reasons for citing "security concerns" as the basis for the rejection.

It also wants to know why they were continuously harassed and threatened, and how a display of public outrage over rape and murders can be construed as a threat to national security.

"(We also want an explanation on) the different and incomprehensible standards and criteria used by the police in giving approvals for police permits."

Awam said the anti-rape rally was to gain public support and foster community involvement in fighting rape, to help the authorities improve the security standards in public places and to raise awareness on the proposed legal amendments relating to rape.

It was also to launch a monitoring body called Citizens Against Rape to keep track of the situation regarding rape and violence against women and children, as well as to monitor the authorities' commitment in handling violence in public places, read the complaint letter.

"In short, this phase of Awam's violence against women campaign was to focus on public participation in working towards a long-term vision of ending violence in our country."

Public apology

The letter also stated that apart from Shahrizat, the Brickfields district police chief had also been invited to speak on public safety measures against rape at the rally, including a peaceful march around Bangsar.

"Instead of spending time and energy preventing us from having a peaceful and socially-responsible rally and march, the police should focus on raising the security standard in our public spaces.

Koh and Chin also said that instead of threatening to make arbitrary arrests, the police should focus on solving the numerous unresolved cases of rape and violence against women.

Awam has appealed for Suhakam's immediate intervention and has demanded for a public apology from the police for harassing and threatening ordinary citizens.

Suhakam commissioner Prof Mohd Hamdan Adnan was today quoted by the New Straits Times as urging the police to simplify the permit application procedure.

Hamdan, who is also chairperson of Suhakam's complaints and public inquiry working group, said it was necessary to improve the application procedures to prevent the public from presuming that the police are behaving arbitrarily.

The daily quoted him as saying that the police should not have a problem approving static public assemblies, especially those held in stadiums, halls and private properties.

"Suhakam reiterates its stand that peaceful assemblies should be allowed. We have received a lot of calls complaining about rejected permit applications," he reportedly said, adding that police must give an explanation for rejecting such applications.