Focus should be on Najib and his ministers, not me, says Ambiga

Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan says the police investigation against her is a diversion, drawing focus away from the real issue. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Kamal Ariffin, July 31, 2015.National Human Rights Society (Hakam) president Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan today said the “swift” action by the police in calling her for questioning is a “diversion” to draw the public focus away from the real issue.

Ambiga has been on the police radar after she allegedly called on the public to take to the streets to air their unhappiness about the current happenings in the country, at a press conference, following the sacking of former deputy prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin on Tuesday.

Ambiga, who is being investigated by police under Section 124C for activities that undermine parliamentary democracy, said she was dumbfounded by the investigation against her.

"I believe this offence is a ridiculous offence. True democracy does not have such offences," she told the media after giving her statement at Dang Wangi police headquarters in Kuala Lumpur.

She said she did not understand what she had said that was detrimental to parliamentary democracy.

"What is detrimental to parliamentary democracy is a lack of accountability of our parliamentarians and our ministers to the people. That undermines parliamentary democracy.

"I would like to ask IGP (Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar) who so quickly called me in for questioning... who he is calling in for questioning over 1MDB, which has already taken such a long time, we don't see him taking immediate action as he did against activists who are just trying to do something genuine for this country.

"The focus should not be on me. Please bring the focus back to the prime minister and our ministers and all our parliamentarians."

She said the most important thing is what the leaders are doing about the crisis in the country today.

She denied calling for the prime minister to step down.

"I never call for the prime minister to step down," she said.

She added that she has nothing to hide including the action plan mooted by Hakam and other NGOs on Monday to save the country from her current troubles.

"We made it very open and in fact, we have sent the action plan to all the MPs. We are not hiding anything. And if you look at the action plan, there is nothing threatening about it. So, they got that completely wrong," said Ambiga.

She spent less than one hour at the Dang Wangi police headquarters today and exercised her right to remain silent throughout the session.

The investigator had posed eight to nine questions, which both Ambiga and her lawyer Latheefa Koya deemed ridiculous.

Latheefa said the investigation today was carried out following an article published in The Malay Mail on what Ambiga had said during a press conference held at Kuala Lumpur Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall on Tuesday.

There were also questions posed on the Bersih 4.0 rally that is expected to be held on August 29 and 30.

Ambiga said that asking for the prime minister's resignation or leave of absence as what being asked for is completely lawful.

"All we are asking is accountability. Please tell us the truth.

"There's nothing wrong for the rakyat to ask our prime minister and the members of the cabinet and the MPs to please tell the rakyat the truth. That's basically what we asking for," she said.

- TMI