Nizar: Why go after me and not Kosmo?

The PAS leader points out that the Umno paper also commented on the Sultan of Johor’s RM500,000 purchase of a number plate

TAIPING: Former menteri besar Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin today accused the police of double standard for threatening to prosecute him under the Sedition Act while leaving the daily Kosmo alone over an alleged insult to the Sultan of Johor.

Police have interrogated Nizar over his Twitter comments regarding the sultan’s purchase of the car number plate WWW1.

Kosmo, which is one of the Utusan group of publications, has published two cartoons on the controversy. One of the cartoons appeared on May 28 with the caption “Plat berharga RM500,000” and the other on May 30 with the caption “WWW1 paling mahal”.

“Why the double standard in only charging me whereas no action has been taken against Kosmo for the same offence?” Nizar said in an interview with FMT.

“Is it because Kosmo is an Umno paper whereas I am a Pakatan leader?”

Last Monday, Perak PAS Youth lodged a police report with the Ipoh police headquarters, seeking action against Kosmo for publishing the cartoons.

Nizar said the various police reports against his tweets were politically motivated by Barisan Nasional.

“I never insulted the Tuanku in any way but the BN-controlled media fully played up the issue to tarnish my political image,” he said.

He added that he was considering suing the newspapers that defamed him.

Violating spirit of tweeting

Nizar sent out four tweets on the subject of the car plate on May 28, just after 4pm. They read as follows:

1.”rm520k bolih di-belanjakan membantu rakyat Melayu Johor yg masih ramai miskin serta memerlukan bantuan utk kpdaun hidup bina 20 rumah ppt!”

2.”but if comparing 24 million diamond ring by rosmah than rm520k 4 WWW1 reg plate is nothing but how does 1 justify that purchase?”

3.”rm520k utk no plate WWW1 xkan nak letak kat kereta proton atau motorkat? ramai lagi rakyat yg masih kais pgi mkn pagi kais ptg mkn petang!”

4.”beberapa juta UMNO buang wang rakyat utk merosakan aqeedah belia melayu dgn menghidangkan maksiat, akhirnya kena kencing?”

Nizar said Umno’s fault-finding violated the spirit of tweeting. “What I said was just a layman’s opinion to create a healthy debate.”

He added that Umno was trying to prevent him from contesting in the coming election. He is currently the MP for Bukit Gantang and state assemblyman for Pasir Panjang.

He said the police acted professionally when they questioned him yesterday and did not pressure him to answer all of the 28 questions they posed.

But he added that he was puzzled that most of the questions had nothing to do with the accusation against him.

“They were more interested in questioning me on my personal and political life and the workings of Pakatan in Perak.”