12 November 2008

It’s every Malaysian’s birth right to sing Negaraku without a police permit
The Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (BERSIH) slams the Selangor Chief Police Officer (CPO) Deputy
Comm Datuk Khalid Abu Bakar for his arrogance in questioning the right of Malaysians to sing the
national anthem.
BERSIH demands that Home Minister Datuk Syed Hamid Syed Albar to apologize to HM Yang di-Pertuan
Agong, HM Sultan of Selangor and all Malaysians and to suspend the CPO from his duties immediately.
BERSIH states that it is every Malaysian’s birth right to sing the national anthem or to raise the national flag
whenever he or she likes as an expression of his/her love to the Nation and the King. Malaysians will not
apply for a police permit to do so even if there are five Malaysians gathered together to do it as a patriotic
gesture.
Yesterday, Datuk Khalid Abu Bakar compared the citizens who sung the national anthem to ‘criminals’ by
asking, “What would happen if every criminal that we confront starts singing the national anthem?”
BERSIH says that Datuk Khalid Abu Bakar’s comparison of patriotic citizens with criminals is obscene, outrageous and les majeste. The citizens were singing Negaraku to show their love to the Nation and the King. They did not disturb peace or cause harm to anyone. Only a colonial government or an occupying force will find the singing of a country’s national anthem criminal.
Datuk Khalid Abu Bakar’s Freudian slip shows the skewed mentality of some police officers who subconsciously see themselves as the supreme ruler or the colonial master of Malaysians. If the police’s intention was only to arrest the gathering citizens, they could arrest them peacefully after the singing has been completed.
BERSIH demands the Home Minister Syed Hamid Syed Albar to apologize to the King, the Sultan and the people and take immediate action on Datuk Khalid Abu Bakar to show that his action is not instructed or consented to by the Federal Government.
By first instructing policemen to charge a group of citizens singing the national anthem, then lying to the
public by denying such an act took place, and now implying that singing national anthem without police permit is criminal, his position is absolutely untenable.