KUALA LUMPUR - The Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar should be suspended for allegedly turning Malaysia into a “police state”, a DAP federal lawmaker’s aide said today.
Citing the mass arrests of 32 individuals who protested against the Goods and Services Tax (GST) yesterday, Jay Jay Denis accused the police of abusing their powers by allegedly stifling criticism against the Najib administration and its actions.
“Khalid Abu Bakar is tightening the screws of repression and should be suspended
pending a reference to the Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission,” the research officer of DAP’s Klang MP Charles Santiago wrote in a statement that was sent to Malay Mail Online.
Denis alleged that Malaysians were are being governed according to the police’s “whims and fancies”, instead of being subjected to the rule of law and by facts.
“We are now in a mightily precarious set of circumstances. The police force and IGP needs
to be accountable to the public.
“But if that fails, there should be a call by all Malaysians requesting PM Najib Razak to
use his constitutional power to replace Khalid Abu Bakar, so that the reputation of
Malaysia’s police can be rebuilt,” he said, adding that it is an inherent right for a society to fight for its political beliefs.
Yesterday, the IGP cautioned Denis against being excessive with his criticism of the string of arrests after the May Day rally, insisting on microblogging site Twitter that his officers were merely performing their duties in maintaining the public peace.
In the exchange of tweets, Denis had first accused the police of terrorising Malaysians with the mass arrests, while Khalid later posted two pictures on his page, one showing graffiti on a metal hoarding and another showing protesters engulfed in a cloud of orange smoke believed to be from a smoke bomb.
“@jayjaydenis Who is terrorising our streets. @PDRMsia?” Khalid asked, referring to the Royal Malaysian Police Force by its Malay initials.
But Denis responded with a tweet to say that he will stand by his remarks, pressing the IGP to explain the reasons for the arrests and questioning the alleged different standard of treatment accorded to other protests.
In the latest update provided by police, 32 people including prominent activist Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan, DAP MP Anthony Loke and PSM secretary-general S. Arutchelvan were arrested over yesterday’s protest, with their detention being under the Sedition Act and Section 143 of the Penal Code covering unlawful assemblies.
The arrests ― carried out within several hours after the rally ended ― were reportedly made under Sections 143, 427 and 448 of the Penal Code, Section 4 of the Corrosive and Explosive Substances and Offensive Weapons Act.
The rally by civil society movement #KitaLawan kicked off shortly after 2.30pm yesterday afternoon from several meeting points and drew a reported crowd of nearly 10,000 participants to the streets of Kuala Lumpur.
Although there were no reports of injuries, police claimed on their official Facebook account after the event that the rally was not fully under control, citing incidents of alleged vandalism and smoke bombs being thrown by the protesters to back up its claim.
Ambiga, Loke and Arutchelvan have since been released after the police failed to secure a remand order to detain them further; the remaining 29 have, however, been remanded for another three days. - Malay Mail
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