Dr M: Opposition is ‘privileged’ in committing criminal acts

Dr Mahathir said the opposition would decry prosecution against them as political and oppressive. — File pic

KUALA LUMPUR, June 4 — There is no equality before the law, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad declared in a blistering attack today against what he said was the perception that the opposition was privileged in committing “blatant criminal acts” where any repercussion was seen as political “oppression”.

He also alleged that the law was biased in favour of the opposition. Dr Mahathir did not, however, provide any examples.

In an apparent reference to the recent Bersih 3.0 rally, the former prime minister repeated in a posting on his blog previous remarks that the police were deliberately provoked into behaving aggressively and that the alleged acts of police brutality had been “elicited”.

The Bersih 3.0 rally for free and fair elections on April 28 had turned violent shortly after riot police fired tear gas and water cannons to disperse the crowd of thousands in the streets of the capital.

Policemen were seen attacking protesters but pockets of demonstrators also turned on the police, pelting them with hard objects such as broken concrete slabs, mineral water bottles and stones.

In his posting today, Dr Mahathir did not name any individual but made specific mention to a “favourite candidate” of the foreign powers, whom he accused of deliberately timing the violence for when the general election is drawing near.

This “favourite candidate”, he added, could do no wrong in the eyes of these foreign powers and any governmental action against this individual would later be regarded as an attempt to undermine the person’s chances of ousting the current administration.

“If you are a favourite candidate of foreign powers for regime change, you can do what you like, and any governmental action against you would be labelled as uncalled for oppression,” he said in the posting on his blog chedet.co.cc.

In his previous postings, Dr Mahathir had named Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as the candidate of foreign powers and accused the United States government and Israel as being co-conspirators in a plan to affect a regime change in Malaysia through the opposition leader.

“That the ‘favourite’ purposely timed his violence just when elections are near would be ignored. That the provocation of the police is deliberate and meant to elicit ‘police brutality’ will also be ignored.

“That the police are beaten up, that police cars have their glass windshields smashed and the police car is overturned in full view of TV cameras — all these are inconsequential,” he said.

All this, according to Dr Mahathir, makes the case for his claim that equality before the law was merely a fiction of democracy.

He said that any action against the opposition by the government would never be deemed as an exercise in legal equality. Rather, it would be seen as a political move.

“Blatant criminal acts by the opposition leaders must be regarded as permissible. In law they must be considered as privileged people,” he said.

But on the flip side, added the country’s longest-serving prime minister, the police are expected to be punished for their alleged crimes against the people.

“There really is no equality before the law. Instead there is blatant inequality; there is bias in favour of some people especially the aspirants for regime change,” he said.

As another example, Dr Mahathir added that the law often favours the rich as they are able to hire “brilliant and fearsome lawyers” instead of the ordinary run-of-the-mill legal practitioners.

“There is clearly no equality before the law. Get a good expensive lawyer and you can get away with murder. Get a bad cheap lawyer and you may be hanged for someone else’s murder,” he pointed out.