Islamists, Reds infiltrating Pakatan an SB spin, says Kit Siang

KUALA LUMPUR, July 20 — Reports that Jemaah Islamiah (JI) terrorists and former communists are infiltrating Pakatan Rakyat (PR) parties to be fielded as candidates are a police Special Branch “spin” that reflects the ruling Barisan Nasional’s (BN) desperateness, Lim Kit Siang said today.

The veteran opposition leader also dared Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein to get the police to explain who were such closet leaders and why they allowed the police to go public with the “cock and bull story” carried by state news agency Bernama yesterday.

“Have the Umno/BN leadership become so desperate in the face of the democratic electoral challenge from Pakatan Rakyat that they have to get the Special Branch to conjure up the latest scare, a ‘cock and bull story’ of the JI and communists infiltrating Pakatan Rakyat parties, in particular PAS and DAP, to prepare for an undemocratic pre-emptive strike against the Pakatan Rakyat?” the Ipoh Timor MP asked in a statement this morning.

Lim (picture) also questioned if this was an attempt by the Special Branch to justify its RM381 million allocation from the RM6.3 billion police budget for 2012.

The Bernama report yesterday quoted Special Branch chief assistant director of the E2(M) national social extremist threat division Mohd Sofian Md Makinuddin at the National Young Leaders Convention in Parliament yesterday, claiming that JI elements were trying to infiltrate PAS while the communist elements were trying to infiltrate the DAP.

Lim said the statement would have been laughed off and dismissed as the most sick and top political joke of the year “if not for the gravity of having such wild, scatter-brained and crackpot ideas influencing and determining policy-making at the highest government and security levels in the country”.

“Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammmudin Hussein should explain why they are ‘scraping the bottom of the barrel’ in giving the green light to the Special Branch to go public with the ‘cock and bull story’ of Jemaah Islamiah (JI) terrorists and former communists infiltrating Pakatan Rakyat parties and trying to be fielded as candidates in the coming general election.

“With the resurrection of the Islamist terrorist and communist bogeys infiltrating the Pakatan Rakyat parties, is the stage being set for a special operation against the Pakatan Rakyat parties to remove the democratic and legitimate threat posed by Pakatan Rakyat to continued Umno/BN hold on federal power in the 13th general election?” he asked.

Lim claimed it was an open secret that Najib would have dissolved Parliament to hold the general election before the start of the fasting month tomorrow if not for the Bersih 3.0 rally on April 28, which placed the ruling coalition in a disadvantageous position.

He also questioned the role of Biro Tatanegara (BTN) in the one-day convention, saying the agency within the Prime Minister’s Department last week was also involved in the 1 Malaysia Social Media Convention where it promised “to raise an army of 10,000 Umno/BN cybertroopers with the message that it was permissible to spin lies and falsehoods against the Pakatan Rakyat parties.”

“Is the Special Branch canard about JI terrorists and communists infiltrating Pakatan Rakyat parties the latest example of such permissible ‘spin’ of lies and falsehoods against PR, just like the earlier ‘spins’ of lies and falsehood about the DAP wanting to establish a Christian Malaysia and appoint a Christian prime minister as well as wanting to establish a republic by abolishing the constitutional monarchical system?

“I challenge Najib, Hishammuddin and Mohd Sofian of the Special Branch to identify the present DAP and PR leaders, MPs and state assembly members who are either closet JI terrorists or communists or name names of those who have ‘infiltrated’ the PR parties and trying to be fielded as candidates in the coming general election,” Lim said.

Otherwise, Lim told Mohd Sofian to withdraw and apologise “for such a serious and baseless allegation or he should face disciplinary action and even be sacked for making a most irresponsible statement unbecoming of a public servant whose top-most priority must be to serve the nation and not the political party currently in power”.

In the Bernama report, Mohd Sofian said the Special Branch had detected several JI elements who attempted to infiltrate PAS besides some communist movement elements into the DAP.

“Several leaders from the Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM) and Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) also frequent Bangkok and southern Thailand, believed to attend secret meetings with former Malayan Communist Party leaders there.

“The effect is new political ideas which have the potential of threatening the nation’s core values have spread. The movement receives support from foreign non-governmental organisations (NGOs) which assist in terms of finance, training locally and abroad as well as exposure to specific expertise in facing the general election,” he was quoted as saying when delivering a lecture titled “Keselamatan Negara Tanggungjawab Bersama” (National Security A Shared Responsibility) at the convention.

Mohd Sofian said the movement’s aim was to create local NGOs which would always be hostile to the government and create chaos to weaken the ruling government.

“In this matter, we worry that the opposition parties and NGOs play up controversial issues to stir hatred among the public towards the government by the time the elections come.

“Or (it’s) to increase demonstrations and incidents which can divert police attention... demonstrations will continue to be a trend in our country,” he said.

Mohd Sofian said the Bersih rally, Orange and Green rallies, organised by opposition supporters recently, were planned specially in the run-up to the coming general election.

“In addition, the campaign culture practised by Malaysia throughout the year has caused the public to be exposed to information with political values,” he added.