The decision to hold PAS vice-president Husam Musa under remand to facilitate investigations into his alleged breach of the Sedition Act 1948 is another instance of the government's penchant for selective prosecution.
Husam was arrested by federal police in Ampang last Saturday while he was on his way to the 'Black 505' gathering in Padang Merbok.
The Kelantan state assembly representative was taken by police to Kota Baru where a day later, at the state police headquarters temporarily converted into a magistrate's court, he was charged under the Sedition Act for a statement he was supposed to have made about martyrdom.
The prosecution's request for a two-day remand order was granted. It is unusual to hold people suspected to have committed sedition in remand. Investigations can proceed without the suspects' presence on the premises.
The decision to hold Husam in remand has less to do with investigatory than with intimidating intent.
After all, he was supposed to have aired the view that if an attendee at the 'Black 505' in Padang Merbok expires as a result of exertions on behalf of the cause of highlighting electoral fraud, the person would gain martyrdom.
In recent months, Perkasa chief Ibrahim Ali has made more incendiary statements but the former MP of Pasir Mas - he was defeated in the constituency by his PAS opponent in Election 2013 - has only been called in for questioning, and not charged.
This and other instances where government-favouring controversialists, like former MP for Kulim-Bandar Baru, Zulkifli Noordin, and the former Selangor PAS chief and state executive councillor, Hasan Ali, have enjoyed considerable leeway when it came to venting their manias and obsessions.
The authorities have not minded their recurrent bursts of incendiary pronouncement which raises questions about the authorities' evenhandedness when it comes to pressing charges against - largely oppositionists - under the Sedition Act.
Husam is only the latest oppositionist to come under the gavel of a skewed enforcement of the Sedition Act.
In Husam's case, there may be latent reasons for this selective prosecutorial behaviour.
Casualty of a power play
The assemblyperson for Salor has been a casualty of a power play within Kelantan PAS which saw the former state executive councillor excluded from new Menteri Besar Ahmad Yakob's state cabinet line-up.
Husam's exclusion came as a surprise. It was attributed to the Kelantan sultan's alleged displeasure towards the man arising from a perceived act of lese majeste in the past.
Husam, who was the linchpin of former MB Nik Aziz Nik Mat's state cabinet, discounted this story of ruler displeasure as being responsible for his exclusion from Ahmad Yakob's cabinet.
Matters were headed for some kind of reconciliatory resolution where it was suggested that Husam would be given a role as a state economic adviser.
It is not clear why this move did not eventuate, whether due to a lack of will on the part of the administration or to a disinclination on the part of Husam to accept the post.
Suffice the next instance of the simmering controversy flaring up to a boil was when Husam criticised PAS leaders who failed to turn up at the staging of a 'Black 505' rally at Ketereh in Kelantan on June 12.
Husam suggested that absentees among the PAS leadership cohort for Kelantan and Terengganu at the Ketereh event were taking an Umno-like stance on the question of fraud having marred Election 2013.
This was a provocative thing to say, given that some quarters of PAS, especially from its ulama wing, have publicly voiced the view that the party accepted the results of Election 2013 as a fait accompli.
This stance is in contrast with the wing in PAS, composed mainly of professionals, which looks askance at the results, contending that the exercise was so marred by fraud to warrant the resignation of the people in charge of the Election Commission.
Husam, the defeated PAS candidate for the federal seat of Putrajaya, belongs in the group that holds the EC as irredeemably tainted and in need of an overhaul in leadership.
The ‘Black 505' gathering, 15 lead-up events held until last Saturday's culminating convergence at Padang Merbok, was supposed to be an expression of PAS' solidarity with those in Pakatan Rakyat who feel that the results in Election 2013 were morally marred.
The authorities' decision to prosecute Husam for sedition is being viewed through the prism of the power play in Kelantan PAS and Husam's stance on electoral fraud.
Husam was arrested by federal police in Ampang last Saturday while he was on his way to the 'Black 505' gathering in Padang Merbok.
The Kelantan state assembly representative was taken by police to Kota Baru where a day later, at the state police headquarters temporarily converted into a magistrate's court, he was charged under the Sedition Act for a statement he was supposed to have made about martyrdom.
The prosecution's request for a two-day remand order was granted. It is unusual to hold people suspected to have committed sedition in remand. Investigations can proceed without the suspects' presence on the premises.The decision to hold Husam in remand has less to do with investigatory than with intimidating intent.
After all, he was supposed to have aired the view that if an attendee at the 'Black 505' in Padang Merbok expires as a result of exertions on behalf of the cause of highlighting electoral fraud, the person would gain martyrdom.
In recent months, Perkasa chief Ibrahim Ali has made more incendiary statements but the former MP of Pasir Mas - he was defeated in the constituency by his PAS opponent in Election 2013 - has only been called in for questioning, and not charged.
This and other instances where government-favouring controversialists, like former MP for Kulim-Bandar Baru, Zulkifli Noordin, and the former Selangor PAS chief and state executive councillor, Hasan Ali, have enjoyed considerable leeway when it came to venting their manias and obsessions.
The authorities have not minded their recurrent bursts of incendiary pronouncement which raises questions about the authorities' evenhandedness when it comes to pressing charges against - largely oppositionists - under the Sedition Act.
Husam is only the latest oppositionist to come under the gavel of a skewed enforcement of the Sedition Act.
In Husam's case, there may be latent reasons for this selective prosecutorial behaviour.
Casualty of a power play
The assemblyperson for Salor has been a casualty of a power play within Kelantan PAS which saw the former state executive councillor excluded from new Menteri Besar Ahmad Yakob's state cabinet line-up.
Husam's exclusion came as a surprise. It was attributed to the Kelantan sultan's alleged displeasure towards the man arising from a perceived act of lese majeste in the past.
Husam, who was the linchpin of former MB Nik Aziz Nik Mat's state cabinet, discounted this story of ruler displeasure as being responsible for his exclusion from Ahmad Yakob's cabinet.
Matters were headed for some kind of reconciliatory resolution where it was suggested that Husam would be given a role as a state economic adviser.
It is not clear why this move did not eventuate, whether due to a lack of will on the part of the administration or to a disinclination on the part of Husam to accept the post.
Suffice the next instance of the simmering controversy flaring up to a boil was when Husam criticised PAS leaders who failed to turn up at the staging of a 'Black 505' rally at Ketereh in Kelantan on June 12.
Husam suggested that absentees among the PAS leadership cohort for Kelantan and Terengganu at the Ketereh event were taking an Umno-like stance on the question of fraud having marred Election 2013.This was a provocative thing to say, given that some quarters of PAS, especially from its ulama wing, have publicly voiced the view that the party accepted the results of Election 2013 as a fait accompli.
This stance is in contrast with the wing in PAS, composed mainly of professionals, which looks askance at the results, contending that the exercise was so marred by fraud to warrant the resignation of the people in charge of the Election Commission.
Husam, the defeated PAS candidate for the federal seat of Putrajaya, belongs in the group that holds the EC as irredeemably tainted and in need of an overhaul in leadership.
The ‘Black 505' gathering, 15 lead-up events held until last Saturday's culminating convergence at Padang Merbok, was supposed to be an expression of PAS' solidarity with those in Pakatan Rakyat who feel that the results in Election 2013 were morally marred.
The authorities' decision to prosecute Husam for sedition is being viewed through the prism of the power play in Kelantan PAS and Husam's stance on electoral fraud.
TERENCE NETTO has been a journalist for four decades. He likes the occupation because it puts him in contact with the eminent without being under the necessity to admire them.
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