Cops probe Kit Siang's Sri Lanka comments

 

Police are probing remarks made by DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang on whether the cabinet would suffer the same fate as their Sri Lankan counterparts.

While not naming Lim, police said they are investigating the screenshot of a tweet accompanied by a sentence from the Iskandar Puteri parliamentarian's press statement on Thursday.

In that statement, Lim had asked: "Will the houses of the prime minister and ministers of Malaysia be set on fire by angry protestors as happened in Sri Lanka last week?"

He had also sent out a tweet with the same question and linked it to his full statement.

This prompted former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak and others to call on police to investigate Lim for sedition and incitement.

Bukit Aman CID chief Abd Jalil Hassan said in a statement last night that police were investigating the remarks under Section 505(c) for making statements conducive to public mischief, and under Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act for improper network use.

Learn from mistakes

Lim's remarks appeared to be cautionary as the question was followed by remarks that it was not likely to happen soon, but that Malaysia must learn from the mistakes of Sri Lanka.

The DAP veteran had also hit out against Najib for accusing him of incitement to violence.

"A bona fide politician will know that I am not advocating violence - the burning of the houses of the prime minister and ministers – but warning that we should learn from the lessons of Sri Lanka and not allow the political and socio-economic conditions in Malaysia to deteriorate to a failed state as happened in Sri Lanka for over half a century," he said in a statement yesterday.

Violent protests against the Sri Lankan government erupted this month after a chronic foreign exchange shortage led to rampant inflation and shortages of medicine, fuel and other essentials.

In the country’s worst economic crisis since independence in 1948, protesters burned down homes belonging to dozens of politicians, including the family home of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and his younger brother and President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

Mahinda tendered his resignation as prime minister on May 9.

Ramasamy defends Lim

Meanwhile, Penang Deputy Chief Minister II P Ramasamy, who is also DAP's Perai state assemblyperson, defended Lim's statement.

"I don’t understand what is so seditious about DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang’s post in his blog that Malaysia should avoid the disastrous path taken by Sri Lanka.

"He might have mentioned the fact of riots and demonstrations in Colombo that went to the extent of burning the houses and properties of some ministers.

"What was posted by Lim was not seditious or mischievous but a posting that called for Malaysia not to take the path of Sri Lanka," he said in a statement. - Mkini