Malaysia has the most politicised Inspector-General of Police(IGP) since Tan Sri Rahim Nor’s infamous act of beating up Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim that gave Anwar the infamous black eye. DAP condemns in the strongest terms the arrest of a Shah Alam MP Khalid Samad at 3.20 am in his home, not for committing any offence that harm or stole from the rakyat, but for exercising a fundamental human right of gathering peacefully to protest against injustice and the Goods & Services Tax imposed on 1 April 2015.
PAS Shah Alam MP and central executive committee member Khalid Samad was rudely awaken from his sleep and arrested in the dead of the night under Penal Code section 143 for illegal assembly related to the Kita Lawan rally at the Sogo shopping mall. Is it necessary to put on a show of brute naked force by conducting such arrests in the dead of the night, when Khalid would never run away but would be willing to go to any police station in the daytime as requested?
No pro-BN demonstrators were arrested in the dead of the night like Khalid after their “illegal” rallies in Penang state government offices in Komtar or at DAP Headquarters in Kuala Lumpur. Again this is a clear case of double-standards and selective arrests by the IGP.
Has Malaysia now descended to new depths where a peaceful gathering is now a more dangerous offence than crimes that cause bodily harm or financial scandals that cause billions of ringgit in losses? Despite the Global Financial Integrity Report estimating that Malaysia lost RM1.4 trillion in illicit funds outflow over a 10-year period from 2003-2013, not a single person responsible has been arrested in the same manner that a MP elected by the people like Khalid suffered in the dead of the night. Does the IGP consider a peaceful assembly as a more dangerous offence that threatens national security as compared to corruption that steals our children’s future?
Khalid’s arrest follows high-handed arrests of PAS Deputy President Mohamed Sabu in Penang, PKR Secretary-General Rafizi Ramli and social activist Hishamuddin Rais’s. An estimated 120 individuals have been detained or questioned in just over a month after the jailing of Anwar in February. Such high-handed and arbitrary arrests commanded by the present IGP has also given Malaysia an international black eye in terms of human rights.