May 2, 2015
Dato’ Sri Mohd Najib bin Tun Abdul Razak
Prime Minister of Malaysia
E-mail: ppm pmo.gov.my
Tan Sri Dato’ Sri Khalid bin Abu Bakar
Inspector-General of Police
E-mail: rmp rmp.gov.my
To the authorities of Malaysia, the Prime Minister, the Minister of Home Affairs, the Inspector-General of Police,
Our association, based in France, condemn strongly the recent arrests of activists and protesters who participated in May Day Rally in Kuala Lumpur.
Those being arrested including Arutchelvan (Secretary-General of Socialist Party of Malaysia, PSM), Ambiga Sreenevasan (Formal President of Malaysian Bar Council), Anthony Loke (Member of Parliament for Seremban) and at least another 29 people.
According to the information we received, our association believes the recent arrests are political motivated and intended to silence opposition against the newly introduced regressive GST.
Hence, ESSF extends its support to those in Malaysia calling upon the government:
To release all May Day protesters immediately and unconditionally.
Stop crackdown of the right to freedom of assembly.
Suspend the implementation of the GST.
Yours sincerely,
Pierre Rousset
Europe solidaire sans frontières (ESSF)
France