PSM claims police abusing Sedition Act

By Lisa J. Ariffin

September 02, 2011

PSM members celebrate after six of their members were released after 28 days of detention without trial, in Kuala Lumpur July 29, 2011. — File pic

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 2 — Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) today slammed as harassment the summoning of nine party members by police for investigations involving alleged sedition in the party’s “Udahlah Bersaralah” campaign.

The PSM campaign was launched to rally the rakyat towards change ahead of the Bersih 2.0 rally for electoral reforms on July 9 that drew a nationwide crackdown by the police.

The nine PSM activists were part of a larger group that had been arrested early in July while on their way to a rally, and included five members who were previously detained under the Emergency Ordinance (EO).

Charged with sedition, the nine were required to give present themselves at the Arau district police headquarters in Perlis to have their statements recorded on Monday, even though none of the group hails from the state or was arrested there.

“It’s not that we don’t want to co-operate, we have been co-operating over so many weeks with the same police department. This is a form of harassment,” said Sungai Siput MP Dr Jeyakumar Devaraj, one of the EO detainees.

“Ultimately it is not good for the police image. It makes it hard for the people to respect and to co-operate with them. The politicising of the police force weakens their ability to take care of the people,” Jeyakumar added.

Lawyer N. Surendran said all nine were remanded previously and had been co-operating extensively with the police on the issue for the past month.

“This investigation, the act of summoning these nine people itself is illegal. It is abusive and unlawful. There must be a crime to be investigated. If there is no crime to be investigated, the crime is committed by the police themselves. They are just trying to find proof that they are right,” he told reporters at a press conference in Brickfields.

Despite the cries of abuse, PSM secretary-general S. Arutchelvan said the nine activists will still co-operate fully with police requests and make themselves available on Monday.

“We will go simply because here the police are saying they did not do their job in the previous investigation,” he said.

“The whole thing is a mockery. The EO6 took 28 days of unlawful detention, they were released and are subsequently charged for the same thing,” he added.

Despite the harsh crackdown on Bersih that saw over 1,700 arrests, Prime Minister Najib Razak has since acquiesced by forming a parliamentary select committee to consider the movement’s eight demands for electoral reforms.