The BN and Umno are using government machinery in trying to implicate Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim in another attempt of political persecution, PKR said today.
This follows the start of a police probe to take action against Anwar under Section 182 of the Penal Code for giving "false information to injure another person".
Anwar's police report concerned the 'Datuk T' sex tape, which was initially screened to several members of the mass media at a luxury hotel in Kuala Lumpur last March, before being uploaded on the Internet.
"Anwar has been asked to give his statement to the police this week, but we have persuaded that it be done on Wednesday at the Kepong police station," Subang MP Sivarasa Rasiah, who is also a PKR supreme council member, said.
"The same person who took Anwar's report on the sex tape, DSP S Shanmugamoorthy, lodged a report against the opposition leader two months ago."
Against this background, Sivarasa said, the move appeared to be yet another attempt at political persecution of Anwar.
He said indications of such persecution have been there for the past couple of months, when Inspector-General of Police Ismail Omar indicated that police would initiate investigations against Anwar on his sex tape police report.
Surendran: We are disturbed
Party vice-president N Surendran said PKR was disturbed and appalled that the police have commenced a new criminal investigation against their MP for Permatang Pauh.
"This is a new and desperate attempt to prosecute and imprison, to halt the movement for national political and economic reforms and to prevent Pakatan Rakyat from winning federal power in the coming general election.
"We will not hesitate to say that Umno and BN are behind this latest political persecution. They have done so against Anwar in 1998, again in 2008 and now," Surendran said.
To make matters worse, he said, attorney-general Abdul Gani Patail, who has been tainted in the past with allegations of fabrication of evidence, would also have a hand in this case.
Surendran emphasised that the latest move by Umno/BN in using the government agencies would not augur well for Malaysia’s tattered reputation.
“The political persecution of the national opposition leader by the corrupt use of enforcement agencies is doing immense damage to Malaysia’s international reputation.
“Umno/BN is bringing our country down to the level of Assad’s Syria or Egypt under Mubarak. We call upon the BN government, the IGP and the AG to immediately stop and drop the latest politically-motivated investigation and cease all police and prosecutorial harassment and intimidation of Anwar.”
Rafizi: An attempt to divert attention
Party strategic director Rafizi Ramli, who was also present, described the latest move as an attempt to divert attention from the wrongdoings of BN/Umno.
He said there are a lot of issues of corruption and abuse of power as highlighted by the opposition recently.
“This latest move is to divert from all the wrongdoings - the National Feedlot Corporation exposure, along with other allegations of abuse of power and corruption.
Sivarasa expects that in coming weeks Anwar’s latest setback will be highlighted extensively.
“We expect Umno/BN will get itself involved in low-level gutter politics to further humiliate Anwar as the polls approaches,” he said.
Sivarasa added that police have appointed senior investigating officer ASP The Boon Ang to the case and he will record Anwar’s statement next Wednesday.
He added they also do not have any clues as to the identity of the “third person” whom Anwar allegedly injured as stated in the investigations.
“I guess we will find out more next week,” he said.
The Datuk T trio of businessperson Shazryl Eskay Abdullah, Risda chairperson Abdul Rahim Thamby Chik and former Perkasa treasurer Shuib Lazim had pleaded guilty to a charge of showing the obscene video and was fined.
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