BIGGEST HYPOCRITE: IGP 'madly lying' over the arrests of tycoon Tong's media men - Guan Eng

Inspector-General of Police(IGP) Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar is madly lying for tweeting that police have adopted a "no tolerance" policy on sedition, when no action is taken against UMNO leaders who make seditious, false and provocative remarks against non-Muslims and non-Malays. This morning, police detained The Edge publisher Ho Kay Tat and The Malaysian Insider(TMI) chief executive Jahabar Sadiq when they presented themselves at the Dang Wangi district police headquarters for questioning.

Before that, TMI managing editor Lionel Morais, senior editors Amin Shah Iskandar and Zulkifli Sulong were arrested and held overnight over a report on the Conference of Rulers published by the news portal which is said to be erroneous. The five are investigated under Section 4 of the Sedition Act for publishing seditious material and Section 233 of the Communication and Multimedia Act 1998. If found guilty, they can be fined up to RM5,000 and jailed up to three years or both. Under Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act, they can be fined up to RM50,000, jailed up to a year or both.

More than 150 opposition politicians and civil society activists have been arrested since February for various offences. And yet no action has been taken by the IGP against Agriculture and Agro-based Industries Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob for his lies in calling a boycott of Chinese traders for refusing to reduce prices and that the Chinese oppresses the Malays.

Before Ismail, another outrageous and inflammatory lie was by former UMNO Deputy Minister Dr Mashitah Ibrahim during the UMNO General Assembly last year that the Chinese community in Kedah had burned the Quran in a Chinese prayer ritual when it was done by a deranged Malay Muslim male. In the same UMNO General Assembly, UMNO Permatang Pauh Division Chairman Datuk Mohd Zaidi Mohd Said made a false claim that the political and economic strength of the Chinese in Penang comes from illegal economic activities such as illegal gambling, prostitution and entertainment outlets. Both did not retract or apologise for their baseless attacks and no action was taken by the IGP.

Any sane Malaysian must be mad to believe the IGP’s claims that the police has no tolerance of sedition when he practices such blatant double-standards and selective prosecution. The IGP may be proud to be called mad when he launches such arbitrary and high-handed arrests. However there is no method in his madness except abuse of power and targeting only those who oppose his political masters, BN.

DAP calls for the immediate release of all those arrested, including journalists who are trying to report news. If their reporting is wrong, they can be sued for defamation or punished with fines. To arrest and put them under remand is an exercise in excessive victimisation, harassment and hounding of journalists doing their job. Where is the freedom of the press when those who write negative or wrong news about the BN government is immediately punished with unnecessary and unreasonable periods of detention?

Again, why is there no similar treatment against pro-BN press who writes lies about PR or even against me as Penang Chief Minister. I have won countless defamation suits against Utusan Malaysia and New Straits Times(NST) and yet no Utusan or NST journalist have to suffer what TMI has to endure from the harsh tactics of the IGP. Taking such harsh measures against journalists is counter-productive and will only give Malaysia another international black eye for not practicing what the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak preaches on freedom and moderation.

LIM GUAN ENG is Penang Chief Minister