The move by the Penang police force to use the Federal Reserve Unit (FRU) against spectators of illegal racing has drawn flak from rights groups.

Police watch and human rights committee chairperson RN Rajah said today he was worried that the police action could harm innocent bystanders.

Penang chief police officer Othman Talib was quoted in Utusan Malaysia as saying today that the police would deploy the FRU to disperse spectators with the use of tear gas and mass arrests, as methods of curbing illegal racing.

Rajah said the police must exercise caution in dealing with such situations as mass arrests and the use of tear gas can cause chaos and panic among the public.

"People have a right to freedom of movement. What if they were just shopping or walking on the street when an illegal race occurs? Are the police going to arrest them as well?", he asked.

Rajah suggested that the police should instead think of the safety of bystanders and devise methods of differentiating them from the actual spectators.

Violence not the answer

Suaram training and human rights support coordinator S Arutchelvan said the police should not employ 'violent' means such as using tear gas to disperse the spectators.

"In any situation, the police should not resort to violence, everyone should be given the right to defend themselves, such as in the court", he told malaysiakini.

He added that illegal racing is essentially a traffic offence rather than criminal, therefore it does not warrant any use of force on the spectators since they were not participating in the race.

He suggested that the police find out key areas where the activities take place to apprehend the offenders using strategically placed road blocks.

"The use of tear gas on spectators is definitely excessive. It can be a bad precedence for the police. If they keep deploying FRU and make use of tear gas for such incidents, they will use it for just about everything", he said

Meanwhile, Hakam secretary-general Elizabeth Wong reminded the police that such use of force was unwarranted as the spectators were not the offenders.

"If the police believe that the culprits are racers, spectators should be considered innocent bystanders. Therefore, no force should be used against them", she said when contacted.

"Such actions (against the spectators) can be misconstrued as abuse of power by the police", she added.

Wong said there are many other ways to disperse a crowd without using force, as Malaysians are "fairly obliging" when asked to leave by the police.