(Penang, Tuesday):
The parliamentary answer by the Deputy Home Minister, Datuk Chor Chee Heung
yesterday that the DAP’s “No to 911, No to 929, Yes to 1957” pamphlet is
not seditious but distributing it may be seditious is the most irresponsible and
outrageous defence of the indefensible, viz the police abuses of power in the series of five arrest actions
from June 5 to August 25 involving 32 DAP leaders and activists in connection
with the “No to 929” campaign.
Chor has demonstrated a deplorable absence of political honesty, courage
and clout to own up in Parliament that the police had acted wrongly and
and abused their powers in arresting 32
DAP leaders in Ipoh, Port Dickson, Bentong and Pandamaran, Klang and that the
police should not have tried to criminalize peaceful and legitimate political and
constitutional activities.
Is Chor seriously suggesting that the police had to “arrest first, investigate later” five times, involving 32 DAP leaders and activists, in four separate places in a matter of three months, before discovering that the “No to 929” campaign is not seditious?
Chor’s defence of the five police arrest actions from between June and
August on the ground that the police had to arrest first and investigate later
is most scandalous, for it might be used to justify one police arrest action but
definitely not five police actions spanning three months.
Chor should have explained in Parliament yesterday whether the five police
arrest actions in Ipoh, Port Dickson, Bentong and Klang from June 5 to August 25
were the result of a policy directive from Bukit Aman or were they
because of the overzealousness and abuse of power of individual police
officers – and if the former, why such a policy of harassment was decided upon
by the national police headquarters and if the latter, what disciplinary action
had been taken against the police officers guilty of such abuses of powers and
false and unlawful arrests.
DAP welcomes the final realization of the Home Ministry and the Police that
the DAP’s “No to 911, No to 929, Yes to 1957” campaign is neither seditious nor subversive, but a nationalistic and patriotic
campaign to defend and uphold the 1957 Merdeka Constitution, the social contract
and the 1963 Malaysia Agreement that Islam is the official religion of the
nation but Malaysia is not an Islamic state, whether UMNO Islamic State or PAS
Islamic State.
We feel sad however that the
supposedly super-efficient Home Ministry and the Police have to take four long
months and 32 wrongful arrests to learn the
most rudimentary principles of the Malaysian Constitution and nation-building
and to realize that what the police had been doing in trying to criminalize the legitimate
“No to 929” People’s Awareness Campaign was in fact going against every
policeman’s oath of office – to uphold the Malaysian Constitution!
But what is completely unacceptable is his answer that the “No to 929”
pamphlet is not seditious but distributing it may be seditious.
Chor should unconditionally retract such an answer or face a RM10 salary cut
motion in Parliament for a most irresponsible and outrageous reply.
Can Chor explain how the peaceful distribution of a non-seditious pamphlet
could become “seditious”?
Chor had said yesterday that even though the contents of the pamphlet did not
incite, distributing them from place to place could be seditious as “the
question of Islam is sensitive”.
This is another irresponsible and outrageous answer, as the “No to 929”
campaign, just like the 1957 Merdeka Constitution, the social contract and the
1963 Malaysia Agreement are not anti-Islam and there are no grounds for anyone
to construe the “No to 929” campaign, the Merdeka Constitution, the social
contract and the 1963 Malaysia Agreement as “anti-Islam”, or the founders of
the Malaysian Constitution like Bapa Malaysia Tunku Abdul Rahman would all be
“seditious” leaders.
Will Chor be standing up in Parliament one day to declare that anyone who
goes round the country distributing the 1957 Merdeka Constitution is likely to
commit the offence of sedition although the Constitution is not seditious,
because of its clear stipulation that
Islam is the official religion but Malaysia is not an Islamic state, whether
UMNO or PAS Islamic State?
The DAP’s “No to 911, No to 929, Yes to 1957” campaign to defend and uphold the 1957 Merdeka Constitution, the social contract and the 1963 Malaysia Agreement that Malaysia is a democratic, secular and multi-religious nation with Islam as the official religion but not an Islamic State is only at its initial stage, and will continue with no let-up until there is full national awareness that the “929 Declaration” by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad at the Gerakan national assembly on Sept. 29 last year that Malaysia is an Islamic State violates the 45-year fundamental constitutional principle and nation-building cornerstone of Malaysia as a secular state with Islam as the official religion.
(24/9/2002)