A gangster as home minister?

P Gunasegaram

If it wasn’t so serious, what Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said would be seriously funny. Although others have said that Zahid was joking, he has not said he was but continues to defend parts of what he said and denies those parts that are more difficult to popularly justify.

There are three things that he said that particularly stand out:

1. He not only defended Tiga Line, a Malay gang outlawed by the police, but included himself and others as part of the gang. He further condoned their actions and asked them to carry on. So, is he a gangster?

2. He openly and strongly defended extra-judicial killing by the police, defending as a right police opening fire on those they felt were criminals. This, under the law, is without doubt an instigation to murder, for the law provides for warning to be given before opening fire.

3. He made extremely racist remarks about who perpetrated crime, who were the masterminds and who were the victims without providing hard evidence, needlessly provoking racial tensions, an offence under the Sedition Act.

That does not only make him unfit to be a home minister but makes him a criminal. Because of the first, he is a self-admitted gangster. Because of the second he basically has given the police, which fall under his ambit, illegal instruction to kill without proper judicial process, leaving them to be judge and jury over whether the “criminals” were indeed criminals. That’s criminal, too.

Inciting racial hatred without stating even a proper basis for the racist assertions he makes is a clear offence under sedition laws. Many have been charged under these laws for far less.

Just to be clear about those three things that stand out about what he said, let’s go back and repeat what he said. Go to this article to read what he said about Tiga Line.

To quote, here is what he said referring to Tiga Line, which is on the police list of illegal gangs: “We are not evil, I know, I have checked. We gather during festivals with our siblings, we gather when there are projects, never mind”.

“I see here, the candidates here, all four of them are Tiga Line,” he laughingly said.

Ahmad Zahid said that police recently had checked out 178,217 Malays, 77,104 Chinese, 73,505 Indians and 51,517 other races in a crackdown against the underworld. Of this, 14,511 were found to be secret society members – 6,171 Malays, 1,701 Chinese, 3,685 Indians and 2,954 from the other races.

And then he said: “The 6,171 Malays, they are not real thugs (samseng), they were Pekida members and were part of the Tiga Line group, Gang 30, Gang 7 – these are festivities (kenduri-kendara) gangsters…

Loud cheers

“I tell our Tiga Line friends, do what should be done,” he said to loud cheers from the room. If there is any doubt about what he said, listen to this.

Is there any wonder that Indian gang members are said to account for nearly three-quarters of the 40,000 so-called gangsters in the country? The Malay gangs must have been exempted.

Regarding police killing where he urged them to shoot first, he had this to say: “What is the situation of robbery victims, murder victims during shootings? Most of them are our Malays. Most of them are our race.

“I think the best way is that we no longer compromise with them. There is no need to give them any more warning. If (we) get the evidence, (we) shoot first.”

That’s both an incitement to murder and seditious to boot.

It’s clear that on at least three counts, Ahmad Zahid may well have violated the law. But will any action be taken against him? Will he even be removed as home minister? Will be come under attack from his own party for blatantly playing the racial line, condoning selective gangsterism, and urging extra-judicial killings by the police?

We all know the answer to that. Perhaps Ahmad Zahid did not mean it, perhaps he was merely politicking ahead of the Umno general assembly but the fact that he can break the law at will and get away with it while being home minister is telling indictment of what the country has become.

This is not the way towards reconciliation, this is not the way forward, this is not the way towards building a just, fair and equitable society for all Malaysians. This is not even the way towards ensuring bumiputera rights and their proper place in the economy and the country.

This is bullying, this is pandering towards the basest in us, to misrepresent facts to Malays to make them vote for him and to make sure that he and others like him continue to stay in power and march headlong towards the ultimate destruction of the country.

This is a corrupt, intolerant regime, it has been for sometime. It has tried to reform and has failed and it now thinks that the best way to stay in power is to become even more corrupt and authoritarian by distributing largesse to the select elite and play the racial card to evoke oppressive laws and keep everyone under control.

Umno delegates will do this country and everyone in this country, the Malays included, a big favour if they kick this self-confessed gangster-home minister out as vice-president of the party in the coming polls.

If, as is likely, they don’t they will be doing all Malaysians a great wrong and will be further alienating them. It does not bode well for the country. Would the next polls finally make a crucial difference?