A PKR assemblyperson is mulling a defamation suit against the Penang police for treating him as a criminal when he was not involved in any such activities.

S Raveen Tharan said the proposed suit is in connection with an ex-parte order obtained by the police to halt two state government functions - in Sungai Nibong (Pesta site) and Seberang Jaya (Expo site) on June 30.

The events were then believed to be related to this Saturday’s controversial Bersih rally in Kuala Lumpur, although state government officials had downplayed the possibility of the activity.

Raveen Tharan said the cops obtained the order from the court on June 29, but had never served it on him although he has two offices - his legal firm in Beach Street and his state assemblyperson premises in Batu Uban.

Instead, they had pasted it all over the streets of Penang, in hospitals, and five-foot ways, he lamented.

The first term assemblyperson accused the police of defaming him by placing the court order in public places to make him look like a criminal.

“Sticking the order all around town was meant to frighten the people and instil fear in them; most importantly, I had nothing to do with Bersih, I am not the organiser,” he told Malaysiakini .

“I just happen to be the state assemblyperson for the area at the Pesta site where the state government event was supposed to have been held,” he added.

“Does this mean that if I had visited my area on that day as part of my duty, the police would have arrested me?” he queried.

On June 29, Penang police chief Ayub Yaakon obtained a magistrate’s court order to stop the two separate events, which the state government had said are “official functions” , needing no permit.

He added that the order had been obtained under Section 98 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) the day before.

He claimed that he had spoken to the state government officials regarding the ban on the rallies, which he described as “illegal assemblies”, asking the latter to cancel them.

Event postponed to July 10

Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng complied with the order and postponed the event, which he said was supposed to be carnival-like, to July 10, a day after the planned Bersih rally.

Raveen Tharan said he plans to invoke Article 124 of the federal constitution to deal with the matter as the said section involved threatening assemblypersons or members of parliament from carrying out their duties.

Meanwhile, the state PKR vice-chief said that Lim, who is DAP national secretary-general, was among the 12 names which were mentioned in the court order.

However, Lim and several others had been served the order.

He questioned the double standard of the police in not serving him and Pantai Jerejak assemblyperson and PKR Bayan Baru chief Sim Tze Tsin; who are both lawyers by profession.

“It’s a criminal order but we are not criminals. The police did not even have the common courtesy to serve it on the persons whose names were in the order,” he said.

Raveen Tharan said it is not wrong for the police to obtain the order as they have the duty to maintain law and order, but they cannot abuse their powers or the order which had been issued by the court.

“There are no exceptions even for the police to do this,” he noted.

Raveen Tharan said he has lodged a police report on the matter last week as he was peace-loving and does not wish to create chaos or riots.