The 2019 International Women’s Day Committee said they were summoned by Dang Wangi’s criminal investigation unit and told that they were being investigated under Section 9(5) of the Peaceful Assembly Act (PAA) 2012 and Section 4(1) of the Sedition Act 1948.
In a statement tonight, the group said they would cooperate with the police “despite these laws being unfairly and disproportionately used against us”.
They said the march was being “deliberately mischaracterised” as an LGBT gathering through police statements, the media’s “sensationalist and biased” reports and politicians, which led to “moral panic and political opportunism”.
“(This) has ignored the five demands of the march,” their statement read, referring to the group’s calls for an end to violence based on gender and sexual orientation, and to end child marriages, give women more rights to make choices about their bodies and lives, and fix the minimum wage at RM1,800.
The Orang Asli representatives at the march had also demanded equal access and control over their land and resources.
“Instead, there has been a disproportionate focus on a segment of Malaysian society who is already marginalised and at risk of violence and discrimination,” the group said.
They also said the march was not “hijacked” or “tainted” by the inclusion of LGBTs.
They said they were steadfast in their stand that the human rights of all communities in Malaysia must be upheld and protected.
The march organisers were disappointed that their five demands received little or no engagement by the authorities.
“We call for a reshifting of energy and resources to the existing reality of disparity, inequality and discrimination being faced on the basis of gender and sexuality, rather than commit them to baseless persecution and attacks on organisers and participants of the march,” they said.
They also criticised Dang Wangi deputy police chief Rudy Abdullah for saying the police had “detected” the organisers, which gave the impression that they were on the run or in hiding.
In an immediate response, lawyer Syahredzan Johan said the investigations by the police were “unwarranted, unnecessary and encroach upon the rights” of the organisers.
“There is no reason to investigate the organisers under the PAA 2012, as the requirement under Section 9(1) of said act appears to have been complied with,” he said.
As for the Sedition Act, the political secretary to DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang said it was a “colonial vestige that is draconian, repressive and has no place in any democratic country”.
“The use of the act is also contrary to the federal government’s commitment to repeal it,” he said.
Syahredzan said freedom of assembly was a fundamental right guaranteed by the Federal Constitution.
“Citizens in this country must be allowed their democratic right to dissent. I, therefore, call on the police to immediately cease all investigations against the organisers,” he said.