“At any such place, for instance the Prime Minister’s Office and the Parliament building, the standard operating procedure is for the police to record the statements of those who have submitted the memorandum.

“There are no arrests. The procedure is that after each protest or assembly, a report will be made. Subsequently, the organisers will be called in to have their statements recorded.

“That is not intimidation,” he told FMT when contacted.

He was responding to claims of police intimidation made by human rights groups yesterday. At a press conference, they also questioned whether the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government had changed its stance on upholding the right to peaceful assembly after taking over Putrajaya.

PSM’s S Arutchelvan said he had been called up by the police just for handing over a memorandum to PH leaders.

However Azis, who is Sepanggar MP, gave the example of the group which had marched to Parliament earlier this week to protest the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012.

“Tan Sri (Muhyiddin Yassin) accepted the memorandum given by the group,” he said, referring to the home minister. “No issues.

“Of course, we could not let the whole group enter Parliament. It is a high security area.”

He also defended the practice of taking statements, saying it was “part of the job”.

“They are just taking note of details such as who organised the assembly. They were not rough.”

Azis also addressed claims that police intimidation was worse now than under Barisan Nasional (BN), saying the police were now very cooperative.

When it came to gatherings, he said, those who wished to organise assemblies only needed to fulfil requirements such as giving notice to the police.

“This is so that they can control the crowd,” he added. “We do not want untoward incidents to happen. Police presence can help prevent that.

“The police have been instructed to give cooperation when such assemblies are held.”