Selangor cries foul over Shuhaimi’s sedition charge

The Selangor government accused the authorities of bias today for arresting and charging Seri Muda assemblyman Shuhaimi Shafie with sedition.

The Pakatan Rakyat (PR) state government said Shuhaimi’s arrest and possible charge was a form of selective prosecution and said that the police and the judiciary only took swift action when it involved opposition lawmakers.

The Seri Muda assemblyman was arrested yesterday and was informed then that he will be charged on Monday under section 4(1) C of the Sedition Act 1948 over statements regarding the state secretary impasse posted in his blog recently.

“Once again a scenario which we fear has repeated itself when the authorities are biased in taking action and only solve cases if it benefits Barisan Nasional (BN) and tarnishes the image of PR lawmakers.

“The question that the authorities need to answer is that why swift action was not taken in other cases involving public interest with the deaths of Teoh Beng Hock, A. Kugan and Aminulrasyid Hamzah?” said a statement from Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim’s office.

The statement said that Selangor fully supported Shuhaimi and insisted that the PKR lawmaker had no intention to sully the royal institution.

Shuhaimi (second from right) at the Shah Alam police headquarters yesterday, February 3, 2011 to give his statement.

The statement also said that Selangor will help with Shuhaimi’s legal fees and to prepare him to face the “baseless charges.”

“Even though a lot of complaints have been made to solve other pressing crimes involving murder, it is an evident injustice when authorities only prioritise cases like this,” added the statement.

Shuhaimi had openly opposed the appointment of Datuk Mohd Khusrin Munawi as Selangor state secretary.

He, along with 33 other PR assemblymen, recently voted in favour of the amendment to Article 52(1) of the state constitution while the 20 Barisan Nasional (BN) representatives opposed it to allow the Sultan — under the mentri besar’s counsel — to appoint the state secretary, legal adviser and financial officer instead of the federally-controlled Public Service Commission.

The coalition failed to amend the state constitution as it needed 38 votes to pass the amendment.

The issue first came to light when the state opposed Khusrin’s appointment as state secretary, arguing that Khalid was not informed of the appointment and it was thus invalid.

Shuhaimi has been subjected to intense attacks by Umno and its mouthpiece Utusan Malaysia, who have accused him of insulting the royal institution after he blogged his comments on December 30 about the state secretary crisis.

Utusan had published a front-page story with the headline “Shuhaimi derhaka (Shuhaimi committed treason)” on January 3.

The paper quoted Selangor Umno as saying that Shuhaimi should be detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA) for allegedly inciting hatred against the royal institution.

Last month, the Selangor Anti-Fraud Coalition (GAPS) and Malay rights group Perkasa lodged a police report against Shuhaimi for allegedly insulting the Selangor Sultan on his website.

Perkasa also called for Shuhaimi to be charged under the Sedition Act.

PKR has however maintained that Shuhaimi was being “harassed” by the police over the matter. - Malaysian Insider