Condemned for following the law

A huge banner put up by the country's ruling party which had a photo of the current PM was removed by the council workers. The reason is simple - they did not obtain a permit to put up the the banner.

You can read the entire news report here.


Pic obtained from The Star

So what was the response? The local council was condemned for following the law! Even the headlines of the report read as 'Removal of Klang Banner Condemned'.

The State Government (which happens to be run by the opposition party - this has probably nothing to do with the condemnation...???) has been accused of 'overreacting'.

Datuk Ti Lian Ker (pic left, obtained from his blog) alleged that their act was one of 'arrogance' and a 'display of power'.

My question to the learned Datuk is since when does the adherence of the law amount to arrogance? Do we not as Malaysian citizens believe in the 'Rule of Law' (Kedaulatan Undang-Undang)?

The learned Datuk alleged that "... the act was not in the spirit of cooperation between the local, state or federal authorities". Does this mean that the spirit of cooperation involves not enforcing the law or disregarding the law? Does this apply to everyone or just the federal government?

The learned Datuk Ti went on to talk about things like spirit of peace, harmony and so on, and promotion of respect, understanding and tolerance of the Chinese culture, tradition and practices etc, etc. Does this mean that the law can be broken or disregarded? Would there not be anarchy in our country if people started to not follow laws?

Please pardon me if my understanding of this is wrong.

I just wonder would it have made any difference if the positions were reversed. And would the headlines still read the same.

But the local council enforcing the law has been roundly condemned.

Malaysia boleh!