Kit Siang wants details on IGP’s ‘wild goose chase’

Zahid has been on a rampage with his “tall tale” of a heinous and treacherous plot to topple the elected government in Malaysia.

KUALA LUMPUR: DAP elder statesman Lim Kit Siang wants details on Inspector General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar’s “wild goose chase” for the last ten days on a plot to overthrow the Federal Government by violent, unconstitutional means. “Ten days have passed. The IGP should declare whether the police have found any such plot.”

Khalid, demanded Lim who is also DAP Parliamentary Leader and Gelang Patah MP, should disclose the number of people arrested or interrogated. “Khalid should also state categorically whether there was any basis whatsoever to Home Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s claim of a plot to topple the elected government by violent or unconstitutional means.”

If there’s no basis whatsoever to Zahid’s so-called “intelligence reports”, asked Lim, would the police propose instead to the Attorney-General to either charge Zahid for the offence of causing people to lodge false police reports, or issue a public reprimand for him misusing his high office which allowed him access to government security and intelligence information.

In this connection, added Lim, the IGP should also admit that any effort at the peaceful, democratic and constitutional change of the Prime Minister or government was none of the business of the police. “It’s an integral part of the process of parliamentary democracy, provided a new majority of Parliamentarians could be found to support a new Prime Minister or a new government.”

The IGP should be forewarned, continued Lim, that Zahid’s claim will be the hot favourite question in the October/November meeting of Parliament. “If Khalid is not prepared to answer this question now, he cannot avoid it when Parliament meets in mid-October.”

Lim was lamenting that Zahid had been on a rampage with his “tall tale of a heinous and treacherous plot to topple the elected government in Malaysia”.

This tall tale, thinks Lim, was aimed at sending the country into a frenzy with two objectives: to distract the nation from the RM42 billion 1MDB scandal and the RM2.6 billion in Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s personal bank accounts; and, secondly, to neutralize and flush out potential challengers to his new-found position as the heir-apparent to the highest office in the land.

“He even got the IGP to play second fiddle by getting the police to go on a ‘wild goose’s chase’ to investigate police reports based on Zahid’s claim of a plot by an Umno leader to topple the government,” said Lim. “It was deemed under section 124B of the Penal Code to cover ‘activities detrimental to parliamentary democracy’.”

The police should be mindful of its independent, professional and non-partisan political role and should never allow itself to become a tool of any political party or individual politician to undermine the democratic process, warned Lim. “The peaceful, democratic and constitutional change of government and the Prime Minister of the day, even between elections, was the legitimate right of the people and MPs once the head of government had lost the confidence of the majority.”