The Attorney-General should resign for abuse of powers, practicing double-standards and selective prosecution against DAP leaders through the Sedition Act whilst refusing to act against racial extremists and religious bigots who preach hate and use violent language against non-Malays and non-Muslims. Yesterday DAP National Vice-Chair and MP for Seputih Teresa Kok was charged under the Sedition Act for her Chinese New Year video “Onederful Malaysia”, in which she allegedly insulted Muslims and the nation’s leaders earlier this year.
This is a vicious lie that Teresa will fight to prove her innocence in court especially when the Home Ministry had admitted in March that Kok’s video clip did not insult the Prime Minister. If insulting BN Muslim leaders is a criminal offence, what about PR Muslim and non-Muslim leaders who have also been insulted by pro-BN groups?
The double-standards and selective prosecution by the Attorney-General is most obvious when BN parliamentary candidate for Pasir Mas Ibrahim Ali had outrageously called for the Malay version of the Bible to be burned without any action under the Sedition Act against him. The latest outrageous statement is by a pro-BN NGO called Islamist group Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia (Isma) which claimed that Chinese migrants brought in by the British to Tanah Melayu were “trespassers” and this wrong had to be corrected.
ISMA president, Ustaz Abdullah Zaik Abd Rahman, said the Chinese who came to Malaya were “trespassers” and questioned the citizenship and wealth given to them and ominously said that this mistake had to be corrected but did not specify how it proposed to correct this purported wrong. ISMA blamed it on the British, who were in cohorts with the Chinese to oppress and bully the Malays. Such language of hate twisted with lies by ISMA, is no different from that used against the minority Muslim Rohingyas and to justify the oppression against them in Myanmar.
All right-thinking and peace-loving Malaysians who are humane are appalled by such vile hatred. DAP condemns these dangerous lies by ISMA that preach racial and religious extremism. However DAP condemns also the Attorney-General for failing to act against these racists and religious bigots who use such language of violence, which the BN government appears to be indirectly encouragaing the breeding of hatred.
Clearly ISMA lies is full of seditious tendency under section 3(1) of the Sedition Act by promoting feelings of ill will and hostility between different races or classes of the population of Malaysia; and especially questioning Part III of the Federal Constitution relating to citizenship of all Malaysians. How then can the Attorney-General be fit to hold office and function impartially to uphold the law when there is such travesty of justice and double-standards?
Teresa Kok is the fourth DAP MP to be charged under the Sedition Act. Previous DAP parliamentarians charged and convicted under the Sedition Act are the late Fan Yew Teng, followed by myself and then the late Sdr Karpal Singh. DAP will vigorously defend her and stand beside her to fight this political persecution and selective prosecution by BN Federal government.