Saturday last week, just about when the sun was hottest, the management at Suria KLCC sent its cleaners out onto the garden terrace for a good scrub of the place. The entire stretch was barricaded, the fountains quiet and sullen, and nobody from the public was allowed onto the stretch. A little strange for such maintenance activity to take place given that Saturdays are the busiest days for the mall.

Perhaps by coincidence, Saturday last week, about 200 citizens of all shapes and sizes congregated (assembled, if you must) onto the park at KLCC. Thwarted for a moment, more amused than frustrated, they moved from the terraces to a shady spot at another corner of the pool.

Here, they simply chilled. Some ate. Some handed out yellow balloons.

Parents thought nothing about bringing their children along. After all, the KLCC Park water's edge is a kids' favourite.

More important was the reason for being there. The message was clear.

See, there's been a new Bill out; one that essentially says if you're planning to have a sandwich with a bunch friends in a park, you'll need to fill up a form to tell the Police ten days before. Wanna go fly a kite with friends at Selayang? - same deal. And - the cheek - they call it the Peaceful Assembly Bill 2011.

Outrageous innit?

But it happened. Parliament passed the Bill this past Tuesday in a speedy deal despite a showing of over 1,000 people, including members of the Bar Council, protesting against it that same afternoon. Common sense, it seems, has taken flight from the Dewan Rakyat.

Ah well. Seven days in between picnics is a long time in these parts of the world. So yaay! Today, being a Saturday, it's picnic time again at the KLCC Park. A national laureate's going to be reading. I hear he reads very well. Fix your peanut butter and jelly slices, grab your shades, your iPods and head on over. It begins at 2pm.

We'll clean some things up in the process. Clean 'em real good.

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shaks  - Out damned Spot! |2011-12-03 12:29:05 :angry: The People have thought long enough and together....they simply do not want the Bill. Go fly kites to the perpetrators!

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