This year, the May Day rally organised by the labour groups, NGOs and oppositions in conjunction with Workers' Day was successfully held. The police department gave their full cooperation in ensuring the people have their celebration without any problem.

Last year, the May Day rally turned ugly due to highhandedness of o­ne man - Dang Wangi district police chief, ACP Bakri Zinin. While the people were walking peacefully towards the Kuala Lumpur City Centre (KLCC) where celebrations were to be held, ACP Bakri Zinin and his force came into the scene and acted violently by intimidating the crowd and arresting 17 people.

The workers (who came from Penang, Perak, Selangor, Negeri Sembilan and Johor), annoyed that the police prevented them from celebrating the historical day, went back to their respective states and lodged over 50 police reports against ACP Bakri Zinin. Meanwhile, the organising committee and workers from the Kuala Lumpur area went to Bukit Aman and lodged a disciplinary report against Bakri. Finally, he was transferred out from Dang Wangi, which was another good lesson for him o­n people's power.

And yet a bigger lesson for Bakri was this year's May Day rally which went smoothly with cooperation from police. The new district police chief, ACP Hadi Ho did not want a repeat last year's mistake. Knowing the history and background of the organisers and the workers - in the past nine years, May Day was celebrated incident free - he gave assurance of his cooperation.

Anyway, this year's May Day rally has proven a point where peaceful assembly was possible if the police give their cooperation, and respected people's right to the freedom of assembly. It has always been that the people just want to gather peacefully and express their views. Even last year's crowd remained calmed in the face of continued intimidation by Bakri and his force.

It looks like the new OCPD understands this, and we really appreciate it. And to officers like ACP Bakri Zinin, we hope you learnt from these lessons.