Around 300 people from all walks of life gathered outside the Sogo mall on Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman yesterday (March 12) to take part in an annual march to commemorate Women’s Day.
The event called Women’s March Malaysia’s destination was the historic Dataran Merdeka, which was about 1km away.
Along the way, participants chanted for changes to Malaysian policy and law such as equal pay as men, the end of child marriages, and social protection for “all oppressed genders”.
This feeling of support was also extended to members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) community, as well as to refugees in the country.
Although it was a generally peaceful march with no major incidents reported, it has since been revealed that the police are investigating the march.
Police involvement
In a statement, Dang Wangi district police chief, ACP Noor Dellhan Yahaya said that the march involved 150 people comprising human rights activists, university students, and members of political parties.
“The unauthorised assembly and march were held in violation of the law.”
“Based on police observation, the participants were found to have gathered and marched while holding placards with words like ‘Imagine If Men Are As Disgusted With Rapes As With Periods, Child Not Pride, Trans Women Are Women, Police Your Behaviour Not My Body’ and others”, he said in a statement.
He said that the police have opened an investigation paper under Section 9(5) of the Peaceful Assembly Act 2012 and Section 14 of the Minor Offences Act 1995 and are in the process of identifying all individuals involved and will call them up to record their statements.
“The investigation paper will be completed and referred to the deputy public prosecutor for further instructions. The public is advised not to participate in any illegal assembly as action will be taken against them“, added Noor Dellhan.
The need for it
The announcement has since gone viral and plenty of netizens have taken to social media to criticise the police for investigating what appears to be an innocent march.
“Why are they investigating this? Was there harm done due to this? They were all just marching, fighting for what they believe in.”
“This is a blatant muzzling of our freedom of expression,” commented a user.
Meanwhile, a couple of users have tagged the social media accounts of various Ministers and the Prime Minister in hopes of getting their attention to solve the matter.
What do you think of the ongoing investigations? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section.
Also read: Women’s Day Is Once A Year But Women Feel Unsafe In Public Every Day
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