It is what we have come to expect. The government, unable to control the large crowds at opposition ceramah (rallies), takes drastic steps: it bans them forthwith. Those most affected, the opposition political parties, attacked the government. The PAS party president, Dato' Fadhil Noor, said it would defy the ruling, a view other opposition parties echoed. The government warned those who attended the illegal ceramahs they would be arrested. Then comes the spanner in the works. The Malaysian Human Rights Commission, Suhakam, said this general ban violated human rights. Besides, no law extant allowed a blanket ban on political ceramahs.

In Malaysia, a law is not a law unless it becomes law in haste and amended in panic as its faults become too obvious. So, with this ban on ceramahs. The Suhakam reservations stuck a bone. The deputy prime minister and home minister, acting finance minister but not acting prime minister, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, wriggles out of it: Ceramahs could be held if the police allowed. Even the state governments of Trengganu and Kelantan, in PAS hands, cannot hold ceramahs without police permits; One PAS Trengganu held yesterday was allowed only at the last minute when the police permit was approved. But everyone misunderstood this, says Dato' Seri Abdullah. There is no ban on ceramahs, even if the government said there is. "If organisers can apply for permits to hold ceramah, it means there is never a ban on political and social gatherings."

And implied the opposition, even Suhakam, to be moronic and stupid. They do not even know how to interpret a ban which is so UMNO look good, not to widen the political discourse. Besides, why should the opposition hold ceramahs in public places and cause public security hassles when they could hold them at their party offices and buildings without the need for political permits? He misunderstands what democracy is all about, that it is the duty of all political parties to explain issues in as many places as possible, that the voter should not be ignorant of political issues, that political discourse should not be restricted to those who live near party headquarters.

Dato' Seri Abdullah continues: "We have our own places to hold assemblies without having to apply for police permits and so does the opposition, including PAS." I am at a loss here whether he means the government or UMNO. Nothing in the report in today's newspapers of his forced rethink about ceramahs suggests he also spoke as UMNO deputy president. Those reporters must know when he talks of "we" in this context, it is UMNO he refers to; any idiot knows it could not possibly be the government, unless it is Dato' Nik Aziz Nik Mat or Dato' Haji Hadi Awang, who confuses the party with the government they head, but not, God forbid, UMNO!

The contradictions multiply. It is important the government never makes a mistake, especially when it does. Ever the legal eagle after the fact, the de facto law minister, Dato' Seri Rais Yatim, says, in his usual gobbledygookian fashion, "the claim that there was no law to allow a blanket ban was a mere interpretative assertion rather than a statement of the law". The police had the absolute discretion to issuee a permit; if it did not issue it, there is no ceramah; if it did, there is. Any one who claimed this ban breached fundamental rights did not understand the Federal Constitution. This clearly allows the right to assembly restricted for reasons of public order and security. He lays down the law firmly: if politicians encouraged people to attend illegal ceramah would be prosecuted if the Attorney-General's Chambers and police decide to. In other words, by all means break the law, but if we decide to prosecute, we should. Lawbreakers, political and otherwise, shiver in fright at such commendable firmness.

Dato' Seri Abdullah and the police now would meet Suhakam over its concerns. But his UMNO deputy in Trengganu, Dato' Idris Jusoh, thinks his political boss is crazy. The Suhakam statement, he avers, is "not a bright idea"; did it not know the police "ensures" harmony, which is why it imposes the ban on ceramah? But everyone scrambles to put a spin on the official ban on ceramahs. If the government had thought through its plan to control the ceramahs, including asking the Attorney-General's Chambers if what it planned is legally defensible, it rushed to announce it.

Now, government and UMNO leaders talk at cross purposes, and contradict each other. But it happens when the leader is more concerned about his security than the country's. And the dauphins scramble over each other, as now, to be first in line to succeed. This opens the usual can of worms. Others down the line, for their own political security, take actions that often make them look stupid. This happens now. Meanwhile, that clear unequivocal ban on ceramahs is not. So the question must be asked: Can Ceramah or No Can Ceramah?

MGG Pillai
pillai@mgg.pc.my