#Nothing2Hide: Police cancels PM's event to 'maintain national harmony'
Astro Awani
Jun 5, 2015 04:01 MYT
Jun 5, 2015 04:01 MYT
The event was ready to take off when the police announced the cancellation. - Astro AWANI/Syafique Shuib
The event this morning where both Datuk Seri Najib Razak and Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad were supposed to attend has been cancelled in the name of maintaining public order and national harmony.
The programme 'Dialog PM Bersama NGO' (PM’s dialogue with NGOs) was scheduled to take place at 9am at the Dewan Tun Hussein Onn in Putra World Trade Centre.
Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar confirmed the cancellation via his Twitter.
About 1,500 members of various NGOs were already present at the premises when the cancellation announcement was made at 8.55am.
Around 9.30am, an event spokesman announced that the event was actually not opened to the media and Pressmen were directed to leave the hall after snapping or recording their shots of the prime minister.
Meanwhile, Dr Mahathir, who had arrived at the hall, created a bit of a stir when he began to address the crowd. His speech, however, was cut short by the police.
Astro AWANI reporter Syafique Shuib recorded the moments via his Twitter.
Event organiser, Malaysian Volunteer Lawyers Association (SukaGuam) had earlier tried to negotiate with the police to let the event continue.
But when it was clear that the event would be put on hold, SukaGuam chairman Datuk Khairul Anwar Rahmat told a media conference that the organisers would strive to get a new date with Najib to hold the dialogue.
He added that the hall could only cater to 1,500 people but about 2,500 people had turned up for the event.
The programme was supposed to allow Najib a chance to address the public’s queries on the various negative reports on him recently.
The programme had been actively promoted by SukaGuam via the hashtag #Nothing2Hide in the last couple of days.
"The NGOs should be given a chance to pose their questions to Najib, seeing that they have a lot of important issues. This is to ensure that politicians don’t dominate the discussions on national issues," Khairul Anwar had said in a statement last Monday.