Lembah Pantai MP Nurul Izzah Anwar said she has never insulted the police force over the Lahad Datu incident, and accused New Straits Times (NST) of spinning her statements.

She said the NST article 'Nurul Izzah hits out at police' yesterday was "malicious and has distorted" her comments made at a ceramah in Jemapoh, Negeri Sembilan, on March 19.

nurul izzah pc 050112 01 Pledging full support for the police and armed forces for their service in the armed intrusion in Sabah, the PKR parliamentarian said her criticisms were aimed squarely at the leaders in the central government.

"I maintain that the issue I had raised was the actions of the politicians in Putrajaya in handling the security problem in Lahad Datu," she said in a statement today.

She said she shared the sentiments of retired lieutenant-general Abdul Ghaffir Abdul Hamid, that the escalation of the armed intrusion into Lahad Datu was the result of a "failure in the intelligence".

This was due to security resources being focused on gathering intelligence against the opposition, she said.

Abdul Ghaffir had said that the crisis could have been solved early had the authorities issued clear orders.

Even former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad had admitted that the government had initially misread the intrusion as an internal matter.

'Apologise or face legal action'

The pro-government English daily reported that Nurul Izzah was "pointing fingers" at the police and reported her as saying that "all the force does is spy on everybody".

NONE According to the report, Nurul said, "What is the job of the security forces? Their job is to spy on the rakyat. Their job is to spy on the PKR leaders.

"Their job, on the whole, is to ensure BN stays successful... until our borders in Lahad Datu, Sabah, were infiltrated.

"Just imagine, 200 terrorists managed to slip into the country and what was the response of the Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein? His response was to give them drinks, kuih-muih and wait for 23 days before striking."

Nurul Izzah also demanded a retraction from NST and an apology within 24 hours or face legal action.

"I have instructed my lawyers to take legal action against the New Straits Times - a propaganda mouthpiece for Umno-BN - with immediate effect," she said.

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