by Lim Guan Eng

(Petaling Jaya , Friday): DAP unreservedly condemns the serial police violence and repeated human rights abuses by the police against innocent people who have committed no crime and who were seeking their basic civil rights. Such a disturbing pattern of repression harkens to the dark and draconian regime of former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad that is completely out of ordinary with Pak Lah’s philosophy of justice and fairness.

The latest police violence was against unarmed and peaceful Hindu devotees protesting against the demolition of the 60-year-old Muniswara temple near Jalan Ayer Madu in Setapak, northeast of Kuala Lumpur, which was located on the path of the soon-to-be-completed Damansara Ulu Kelang Expressway (Duke). Five individuals who were attempting to stop the demolition of a temple were arrested and one called Manickavasagam suffered severe and bloody cuts on his forehead sustained during a scuffle with police officers.

The 3 negotiations held with Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur(DBKL) in the past three years were unsuccessful as the highway developers offered a 10-square-foot of land to build a new temple at a nearby site. This was rejected as the new temple would be about five times smaller than the existing building and sufficient only to build a toilet.

Sentul district police chief Supt Rodzi Ismail’s claim that the bloody injuries were self-inflicted is clearly a figment of his rather active imagination and so ridiculous as to prove that it is a lie. For the Sentul district police chief to say that using excessive force and violence was part of their duty to ensure the safety of DBKL officers carrying out the demolition exercise has only underlined the loss of credibility and moral authority of the police. 

Clearly the police is now “addicted” to violence in dealing with peaceful demonstrators. This latest police violence comes close to the unprovoked beatings and assault on a father protecting his daughters resulting in head injuries during a demonstration protesting the fuel hike on 28 May 2006 in Kuala Lumpur City Centre and the arrest of a 9 year old girl protesting the fuel hike 3 months ago.

IGP Tan Sri Mohd Bakri  claimed the police used minimal force in self-defence. Deputy Minister of Internal Security Datuk Fu Ah Kiow even said the police used minimal violence. Such contortions and abuse of language is despicable and irresponsible. Just as no one can understand how loss of innocent life in war has been dismissed as collateral damage, how can violence be minimal when people are injured?

Human Rights Commissioner Choo Siew Kioh correctly dismissed such weak excuses by saying that “People who are totally armed and clad with body armor reacting against children (and women) cannot be said to be taking self-defence actions. Such an infliction of pain on a selected group of people who were gathered there to protest on social and economic issues is against the dignity and human rights of all Malaysian citizens.”  

Police violence in Malaysia is no different from the barbarity of police in the Southern states of America putting down civil rights demonstrations led by American black leader Martin Luther King. The refusal of the government to set up the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Committee to deal with police wrongdoings shows that Malaysians have a long way to go. Must we continue to suffer the brutal repression of the police acting in the same manner as the white supremacists and Klu Klax Klan(KKK) of the Southern states against blacks and the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s?

For Malaysia to achieve its goal of a civil society, the police must first be civil, tolerant and respectful of peaceful Malaysians exercising their basic human rights to protest against injustices. Otherwise Pak Lah’s quest for justice to be the centerpiece of his administration is mere rhetoric and he would end up no different from the man he now detests, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad