Press Statement (2) by Charles Santiago in Klang on
Saturday, 13rd September 2008:
Release YB Teresa Kok NOW
I join all Malaysians to express my
support and solidarity to a close friend, party colleague and
parliamentarian Teresa Kok who has been detained under the country's
draconian Internal Security Act.
Detaining Teresa Kok for allegedly causing religious tension is
nonsensical. It is an effort by the ruling UMNO-led government to shore
up fledgling Malay/Muslim support especially after the upset March
general election which dealt a severe blow to UMNO and the National
Front coalition.
It also clearly signals Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's
desperation to bolster his power base within UMNO after calls for his
resignation by prominent leaders in the party who see him as a weak,
incompetent leader.
But hastily engineered arrests under the much abhorred ISA, which allows
for detention without trial, would not help UMNO secure the support of
the Malay community who are disgusted with the party.
The government is using its old ploy to divert peoples' attention from
the problems faced by Abdullah and UMNO. Old guards like former Selangor
chief minister has been given a specific part to play in the ongoing
political drama.
Mohd Khir Toyo has used Kok as a scapegoat and twisted a petition given
by the Residents of Bandar Kinrara to look like a transgression on
Islam.The disgruntled former Selangor head had also always taken pot
shots at the newly elected Pakatan Rakyat government after a humiliating
defeat at the general polls.
The detention is an attempt by UMNO to derail the Pakatan Rakyat
government's efforts to woo investors to Selangor. On the morning of the
arrests Teresa met with a busness community from Guandong, China.
I have been working with her to bring a world class heart center to
Klang. There are other efforts under way to bring investments to the
state of Selangor.
I strongly urge the government to release Kok immediately as the chief
of the Masjid Kinrara mosque committee has publicly declared that she
was not involved in the petition to lower the volume of its loudspeakers
during the ceramah following the azan.
I also call on the government to set Raja Petra Kamaruddin free and
abstain from using preventive laws as they violate fundamental
provisions of human rights.
* Charles Santiago, MP for Klang
http://dapmalaysia.org