DAP threatened to move a motion to cut Deputy Home Affairs Minister Chor Chee Heung's salary by a token sum of RM10 for his "irresponsible" and "outrageous" answer in Parliament by defending police action against its leaders during the party's 'No to 929' campaign.

Party chairperson Lim Kit Siang said Chor should retract his statements unconditionally for defending police action in arresting DAP leaders although no offence had been committed by the party under the Sedition Act, as alleged by the arresting officers.

"Chor has demonstrated a deplorable absence of political honesty, courage and clout to own up in Parliament that the police had acted wrongly and abused their powers in arresting 32 DAP leaders in Ipoh, Port Dickson, Bentong and Klang,"said Lim in a press statement.

"Chor's defence of the five police arrest actions from between June and August on the grounds that police had to 'arrest first, investigate later' is most scandalous for it might be used to justify one arrest but not five," he added.

It is traditional practice for an MP to move the motion of dissatisfaction for a RM10 pay cut against another MP.

DAP had gone on an aggressive campaign nationwide to oppose Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad's Islamic state announcement.

Mahathir made the declaration at Gerakan's national delegates conference in Kuala Lumpur on Sept 29 last year, hence the slogan 'No to 929'.

The DAP leaders were arrested for distributing flyers in four towns after the launch of the campaign in June. According to the police, they were arrested for "sedition" but no charges were filed. Leaflets from the campaign were also seized by the authorities.

Not seditious

Yesterday, Chor had said while responding to a question by Tan Kok Wai (DAP-Cheras) that the leaflets were not found to be seditious but the government was still investigating if they violated other laws such as the Printing Presses and Publications Act.

The deputy minister also defended the police by saying that they had to arrest the leaders to ensure peace and security since the campaign may incite the public to take action.

"We have to arrest first and then investigate. The police are just doing the duty and are not prejudiced," he said.

Lim said Chor should have explained if the police arrests were the result of a directive from Bukit Aman or because of overzealousness and abuse of power by police officers.

"If the former, why was such a policy of harassment decided upon by national police headquarters.

"If the latter, what disciplinary action has been taken against the officers guilty of such abuses of power," he said.