Pakatan: Umno-BN crackdown to trigger mass arrests in Selangor

Pakatan Rakyat has claimed that Barisan Nasional is engineering an Ops Lalang-style crackdown on the opposition by erecting banners critical of the Selangor Sultan in PR’s name.

Shah Alam MP Khalid Samad today revealed that a banner insulting the Sultan and bearing the logos of PAS, the DAP and PKR was found this morning in Section 9 here.

The banner, which also bore the mark of the Selangor PKR information bureau, read: “Dimanakah keadilan Sultan dalam isu pemilihan SUK? Siapa lebih berhak?” (Where’s the Sultan’s justice in the state secretary appointment issue? Who has more right?)

Khalid stressed that PR had never questioned the royal institution and said the banner pitting the opposition against the palace was part of BN’s “slick game” to cause trouble in the state by stoking Malay anger.

“I am concerned there may be an evil plan... to give the impression that we want to oppose the palace, which can be used as an excuse for emergency laws or mass arrests under the ISA (Internal Security Act),” he said.

It was later taken down by a PAS member on Khalid’s instruction, only to be put up again temporarily under orders from the police, who wanted to take a picture of the banner.

Khalid said the banner and the police’s insistence on recording it to make a report was part of BN’s “slick game” to cause trouble in the state by stoking Malay anger.

“There may be an evil plan... to give the impression that we want to oppose the palace, which can be used as an excuse for emergency laws or mass arrests under the ISA (Internal Security Act),” he told reporters today.

Khalid said the tactic was reminiscent of what happened prior to Ops Lalang in 1987, when strident rhetoric between Umno Youth and MCA Youth over Chinese vernacular schools led to a clampdown on opposition leaders and the press.

“They (BN) appear to be doing the same thing now by claiming we have a dispute with the palace when, in fact, the banner was put up by Umno,” he said.

Sekinchan assemblyman Ng Suet Lim said the attempt by BN to fan the flames of hatred was a “desperate” move by the ruling coalition to keep hold of its weakening grip on power.

The DAP man said the banner was “yet another BN project” which showed Umno’s inability to respond to PR’s 100-day reform plan with anything other than “disgusting” political tricks.

Yahya Sahri, representing Selangor PKR division chiefs, said similar banners were put up in Johor following Datuk Chua Jui Meng’s appointment as Johor PKR chief last year.

“We are convinced that this is the work of Umno agents... because the same thing happened in Johor,” he said.

All three stressed that PR had never questioned the position of the Rulers as the opposition was committed to upholding the integrity of the royal institution, together with Islam as the official religion, Malay as the national language and the special position of Malays.

Umno-owned Utusan Malaysia last weekend claimed that Malaysia will end up a republic if PKR and the DAP’s rule of Selangor continues.

“The lesson to be learned from the Selangor crisis is that if PKR and DAP [continue to] rule, much damage will be done. What is certain is that Malaysia will be on the threshold of a republic,” the weekend edition of the newspaper said in an editorial written under its Awang Selamat pseudonym.

The editorial insinuated that Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim, under orders from the DAP, wished to trigger a constitutional crisis in the state as a “test case” before similar action was taken in Penang and the rest of the country.

- Malaysian Insider