(Penang,
Saturday): DAP
condemns another case of the police taking the law into their own hands to make
false, wrongful and unlawful arrests of DAP MP for Batu Gajah, Fong Po Kuan and
twelve others this morning over the DAP’s “No to 911, No to 929, Yes to
1957” People’s Awareness Campaign in Bentong wet market, where they were
distributing the campaign leaflet and selling the “No to 929” booklet.
The
Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
should explain whether Malaysia has become a police state where police
could take the law into their own hands to make false arrests of Opposition MPs
and activists to harass the
Opposition from carrying out legitimate constitutional and political activities.
The
arrest of Fong and 12 others, including two children and seven women, with two
handcuffed, is a gross abuse of police powers where the police “arrest first
and find the offence later” – as the 13 were only
told more than three hours
after their arrest that the police were acting under Section 4 of the Sedition
Act 1948 - which can only
besmirch Malaysia’s good name and international reputation as a country with
trigger-happy police with no qualms in violating human rights as well as the
rule of law.
The
DAP’s “No to 911, No to 929, Yes to 1957” People’s
Awareness Campaign is a not a seditious but a nationalistic and patriotic
campaign as its objective is to defend and uphold the 1957 Merdeka Constitution,
the “social contract” and the 1963 Malaysia Agreement that Malaysia is a
democratic, secular, multi-religious, tolerant and progressive nation with Islam
as the official religion but not an Islamic State – whether of the UMNO or PAS
concept.
If
the “No to 929” Campaign is seditious, then the 1957 Merdeka Constitution,
the “social contract” and the 1963 Malaysia Agreement that Islam is the
official religion but Malaysia is not an Islamic State are seditious documents
– and Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak and Tun Hussein Onn, who had at one time
or another as the first three Prime Ministers of the country reiterated that
Malaysia is a secular state and should not be turned into an Islamic State, had
all committed the offence of sedition!
This
clearly cannot be the case – and this is why I have not been charged under the
Sedition Act although I had twice been arrested by the police, the first time in
Ipoh on June 5 and the second time in Port Dickson on July 21, under the
Sedition Act 1948 in connection with the “No to 929” campaign.
The
Attorney-General Datuk Ghani Patail should make clear to the Police that it is
no offence, let alone sedition, to say “No to 929” or “No to Islamic
State’”, as this is the very fundamental constitutional principle on which
Malaysia was founded 44 years ago – and advise the police that they have
embarked on a most unlawful course of false and wrongful arrests.
The
DAP Central Executive Committee will decide next week whether to institute legal
proceedings against the police for the series for false, wrongful and unlawful
arrests of DAP leaders and activists in connection with the “No to 929”
campaign.
The
leadership of Deputy Prime Minister Datuk
Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has come under great test, as the police comes under
his jurisdiction as Home Minister. If the police are allowed to conduct such
false, wrongful and unlawful arrests with impunity, given the licence to
harass Malaysians from carrying out legitimate constitutional political
activities, Malaysians have reasons to be worried about his leadership of the
country when he takes over as the fifth Prime Minister of Malaysia when Datuk
Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad steps down from office in October next year.
I
would urge Abdullah to exercise leadership and restrain the police by putting an
immediate stop to the police abuses
of power, the series of false,
wrongful and unlawful arrests and the harassment of the DAP’s legitimate
“No to 929” campaign.
(4/8/2002)