The six PSM members, including Sungai Siput MP Dr Jeyakumar Devaraj, have been detained by police since July 2 for allegedly having T-shirts bearing the likenesses of former communist leaders.
The police have kept mum on the case except to say the group are being held under the Emergency Ordinance (EO) for allegedly “waging a war against the Yang di-Pertuan Agong”.
The EO was enacted in 1969 as a temporary measure to respond to the May 13 riots, which allows for detention without trial.
Nazri was replying to PSM secretary-general S. Arutchelvan who questioned the use of the Emergency Ordinance (EO) to detain its members when the country is not in a state of emergency instead of other laws, such as the Penal Code, which provides for equally stiff punishment.
“If there is no emergency in the country, why is the Emergency Ordinance used to detain these people?” Arutchelvan raised in a news conference four days ago.
Under Section 121 of the Penal Code, whoever wages war or attempts to do so against the Yang di-Pertuan Agong or against any of the state Rulers “shall be punished with death, or imprisonment for life” and a fine if not sentenced to death.
The Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department said that although the communist-era Emergency period was over, the preventive law created to tackle with insurgents was still in existence and that the police had the choice to use any law they saw fit in defence of the country.
“Even though the Emergency is over, the EO is still in existence, so it’s up to the police,” he said, linking PSM to former communists when he said that communism, though banned in Malaysia, “is not dead as seen by some PSM people... Rashid Maidin, it’s still alive”.
Nazri elaborated and said Putrajaya will not tolerate any effort to “deify” any communist leader as the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) remains an illegitimate organisation; adding that many of Malaysia’s security forces had fought, died or were maimed by the guerrilla units.
Malaysia and Thailand had waged a 40-year jungle war against the CPM that ended in 1989 when the three parties signed the Hat Yai Peace Accord and the guerrilla movement agreed to lay down arms in return for the chance to start their lives afresh.
“We don’t tolerate this because... how to explain to soldiers and soldiers’ families they died for nothing?” Nazri said.
He stressed that the issue with the PSM detention was wholly a “security” issue and that the police were entitled to use whatever law necessary to ensure the nation’s safety.
“It’s up to the police to take action under the existing laws. It’s not wrong for them to take action under the EO and it’s not wrong for them to take action under existing laws.
“At the end of the day, this is a security issue, so it’s up to the police,” the minister said.
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