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  Media Statement by Lim Kit Siang in Parliament on Thursday, 17th July 2008: 

Hamid Albar the greatest national security threat

Datuk Seri Syed Albar is a major security threat if the Home Minister is so gullible as to launch a massive three-day 1,600-personnel police operation to lock down Kuala Lumpur and Klang Valley causing great financial losses and inconveniencing hundreds of thousands of people based on “rubbish” intelligence about a non-existent high-level Pakatan Rakyat leadership meeting, two speeches, two blogs and two SMS.

Hamid had promised Parliament on Tuesday to retract his allegation that DAP Secretary-General and Penang Chief Minister, Lim Guan Eng, DAP National Vice Chairman and MP for Kepong, Dr. Tan Seng Giaw and I had attended a top leadership meeting of Pakatan Rakyat at the Parti Keadilan Rakyat headquarters on July 9 to plot a mass demonstration in or at Parliament last Monday to justify the deployment of 1,600 police personnel to create a three-day gridlock of the Federal capital and the Klang Valley.

Why is Hamid so conspicuously silent about his promise in Parliament in the past three days?

Is he still checking on whether he had been taken for a ride by his dishonest informers who had concocted such tall tale about a fictitious meeting of top Pakatan Rakyat leaders on July 9, purportedly attended by Guan Eng, Seng Giaw and myself – when it is just a pack of lies?

Hamid said yesterday that Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim should not worry about giving his DNA samples if he were interested to seek the truth behind the sodomy allegations against him.

Anwar has said that he has no faith in the system as he is concerned about the fabrication of DNA test results.

If there is a national opinion poll, I believe the majority of Malaysians is behind Anwar in having grave doubts about the credibility and integrity of the institutions of government, particularly those headed by Hamid.

Hamid’s own conduct has given ammunition not only to justify Anwar’s lack of faith in the integrity of the system of police investigations and administration of justice, but also public skepticism that government institutions, whether the police, the judiciary or the Home Ministry could be fair, independent, impartial and professional in the handling of the latest sodomy allegation against Anwar.

If a Home Minister, the No. 1 man in charge of the Police force in the country, can so blatantly and without shame and impunity, purvey a lie about a non-existent top leadership meeting of Pakatan Rakyat on July 9 purportedly attended by Guan Eng, Seng Giaw and I to plot a non-existent demonstration in Parliament on July 14, using it as an excuse to launch a massive three-day police operation to lock down Kuala Lumpur and the Klang Valley, who could ever trust in the credibility and integrity of government institutions?

Hamid should stop advising Anwar or any Malaysian to trust in the integrity of national institutions, organs and agencies until and unless he is prepared to set the example of being a Home Minister who understands the meaning of honesty, credibility, impartiality and integrity.

Hamid had been doubly offensive when he had said that he wanted to check on our alibis to establish that the three DAP leaders were not present at the so-called July 9 Pakatan Rakyat leadership meeting.

It is not for Guan Eng, Seng Giaw and I to prove our alibis but for Hamid to prove that there was indeed a top Pakatan Rakyat leadership meeting on July 9 which was attended by the three of us.

Hamid should stop his double standards of applying the principle that Pakatan Rakyat leaders are guilty until proven innocent, while for Barisan Nasional the principle to be applied is that they are innocent unless proven guilty.

This was why I had asked in Parliament on Wednesday why Hamid had not launched police actions against the Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak and other Cabinet Ministers as there were so many blogs and SMS making serious allegations against them – if two speeches, two blogs and two SMS were sufficient to justify the launching of a three-day 1,600-personnel massive police operation to lock down Kuala Lumpur and Klang Valley.

When is Hamid going to own up that the so-called July 9 top Pakatan Rakyat leadership meeting attended by Guan Eng, Seng Giaw and I is a pure figment of imagination and accept responsibility for the totally unnecessary and unjustified three-day inconveniencing of hundreds of thousands of people in Kuala Lumpur and the Klang Valley by getting Cabinet approval to pay compensation to all those who suffered financial losses, whether major or minor?


* Lim Kit Siang,  DAP Parliamentary leader & MP for Ipoh Timor