"SINGAPORE JUDGES BOW, NOT TO THE CONSTITUTION, BUT TO POWER" - IS TAN WAH PIOW RIGHT?

Recently the Malaysian Federal Court made an important decision which London-based ex-Singaporean Tan Wah Piow commented on his Facebook. QUOTE: "Yesterday I belatedly congratulated my friend Amir Hadi for his recent victory in the Federal Court of Malaysia. On August 14, 2022, Amir Hadi, a prominent member of a Malaysian political party, organized a peaceful rally at the Sogo Complex in Kuala Lumpur. The protest aimed to draw attention to an alleged scandal involving a Ministry of Defence contract. He was subsequently charged under subsection 9(5) of Malaysia's Peaceful Assembly Act 2012 (PAA 2012) for failing to provide prior notification to the police, as required by subsection 9(1) of the Act. His legal challenge focused not on the notification requirement itself, but on its criminalization. In a landmark decision in July 2025, the Federal Court of Malaysia unanimously ruled that Section 9(5) of the PAA 2012 was unconstitutional and no longer a valid law. The ...