SJB MP S.M. Marikkar has petitioned courts against the high security zones gazette issued by the president saying it also aims to “set up rehabilitation camps for misled anti-government protestors.”
After filing the petition, Marikkar told journalists that the president was unleashing repression against the protestors without solving any of the people’s issues they raised.
“It is not drug addicts or war criminals who are to be sent into camps like this,” he said, adding that the plan is to rule the people by terrifying them.
This is clearly a blatant violation of democracy and a destruction of freedom of expression and citizens’ freedom, the MP charged.
A person without any people’s mandate, but elected president through the vote of 134 members of parliament cannot be allowed to deny the people their rights.
The most ironic thing is that he issued the gazette just before leaving for Japan, where adults of over 80 years of age would have spent their childhood confined to such camps, he said.
The petition calls for the annulment of the gazette, said Marikkar, who vowed to fight on over the matter.
