UNSCRUPULOUS ZAHID stirring up trouble just to further his ambitions at UMNO election?

The statement by the director-general of Registry of Societies (RoS) Datuk Abdul Rahman Othman that many DAP members who were eligible to attend its national congress on December 15 last year did not receive notice to do so is both baseless and most unprofessional.

It is a “political twist” to the RoS investigations into the DAP and I see a political “black hand” behind it – all the way to the new Home Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Zahid Hamidi.

Since becoming the new Home Minister a forthnight ago, Zahid had tried to politicise all the departments under him.

Most political Home Minister & IGP

Firstly, being the most “political” Home Minister in partnership with the most “political” Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar, he has created mayhem to police priorities, allowing crime and the fear of crime among Malaysians to run riot because he is obsessed with using police powers to crack down on Pakatan Rakyat leaders and social activists – not having said a single word on the primary duty of the police to keep crime rate low as well as to eradicate the people's pervasive fear of crime.

As a result, Zahid's two-week term as Home Minister takes on the hues of a return of Mahathirism, with arrests and prosecution of Pakatan Rakyat leaders and social activists while Umno/BN leaders and their kind enjoy immunity and impunity for the most sedious and racist utterances.

But the police force is not the only Home Ministry agency which is taking on Mahathirish hues. The Immigration Department director-general Alias Ahmad has announced that 6,564 Malaysians will have their passports cancelled to prevent them from leaving the country, among others, because they had “tarnished the nation's image abroad”.

The government has no powers to revoke the passports of Malaysians who had exercised their constitutional right to support the coalition of their choice in the recent 13^th general elections, as it is not only undemocratic but a gross abuse of power for the Immigration Department to equate criticism and opposition to Umno/BN as disloyalty to the nation.

DAP and Pakatan Rakyat will provide legal assistance to anyone of the 6,564 Malaysians whose passports are revoked because they had exercised their citizenship and constitutional rights to support the coalition of their choice during the 13GE, whether inside or outside the country.

In this connection, the barring of the PKR Vice President and MP for Lembah Pantai, Nurul Izzah Anwar from visiting Sabah yesterday to celebrate Pesta Kaamatan must be condemned in the strongest possible terms, as it is an example of the growing list of Mahahathirish abuses of power and undemocratic practices after the 13^thGeneral Elections.

I commend the BN MP for Kinabatangan Datuk Bung Moktar Radin for criticising the Nurul Izzah immigration ban, describing it as “a big mistake...and it needs to be corrected”.

Bung has become more sensible and level-headed over the years, and he should be promoted as a Deputy Minister instead of those who blindly accept abuses of power without daring to utter a protest.

Mahathirism overtaking the agencies

The RoS is the third government agency in the Home Ministry which is acting completely out character since having a new Home Minister.

Clearly, Zahid is only thinking about the upcoming Umno party elections and he wants to position himself as an UMNO hero by being a macho and belligerent Home Minister who dare to declare DAP unlawful even if it is a gross abuse of power.

DAP leaders, supporters and members must be prepared for the worst, as clearly Zahid has no respect for the rule of law but only rule by law – and may be prepared to shoot himself up to stratospheric heights in the UMNO popularity stakes by taking unlawful actions against the DAP even they constitute gross abuses of power.

Lim Kit Siang is the DAP adviser