MP SPEAKS The claims by inspector-general of police Khalid Abu Bakar that the police are “fair and unbiased” in carrying out their duties and that “those who break the law have to face the music” are so ridiculous and outrageous that they cannot even bear a minute of scrutiny by the ordinary citizenry.

NONE For a start, can Khalid explain the police’s double-standards in not enforcing the law against former Court of Appeal judge Mohamad Noor Abdullah ( left in photo ) for making the most racist and seditious speech in public in the past 44 years, and the pro-chancellor of UiTM and former director-general of Education Dr Abdul Rahman Arshad for committing sedition in urging the closure of Chinese and Tamil primary schools?

If we have a police force which is “fair and unbiased” and which enforces the law without fear or favour, both Mohd Noor and Abdul Rahman would have been questioned by the police, arrested and charged in court under the Sedition Act.

Let Khalid answer the queries about the special treatment which the police leadership had given to the former Court of Appeal judge and the former education director-general before he repeats meaningless statements like the police are “fair and unbiased” in enforcing the law.

Were the police ever given directives, directly or indirectly, by the top government and political leadership  not to “touch” the former Court of Appeal judge and the former education director-general despite their blatant and flagrant crimes of sedition?

Yes, Malaysians want a police force which is efficient, professional, impartial, incorruptible and world-class whose first duty is to keep down the incidence of crime to make citizens, tourists and investors safe from crime and the fear of crime and not to make the Umno/BN political leadership safe from the civic and democratic challenges to their positions in government.

azlan In Malaysia today, ordinary Malaysians, regardless of race, religion or region, are worried sick about the rampant crime and the paralysing fear of crime, while Khalid is worried sick how to defend the prime minister and the Umno/BN leadership from civic and democratic challenges from the people.

Every day, there is the tragic story of how Malaysians have fallen victim to rampant crime. In yesterday’s press, for instance, there is the heart-rending report of a 40-year-old woman, Tar Bee Lin, believed to have been a snatch theft victim, who died at the intensive care unit (ICU) of the Sultanah Aminah Hospital in Johor Baru on Sunday after fighting for her life for four days.

Tar, a clerk who hails from Paloh, Kluang, was believed to have been attacked while waiting alone at a bus-stop near her home in Taman Century to work in the 8am incident on May 23.

She was later found lying unconscious on the ground with her handbag containing a notebook and some clothes missing.

Tar, who had been taking the bus to her office in Taman Molek for the last 20 years, did not wake up from her coma.

Warped sense of priorities

Khalid has given the impression that he is not that  concerned, touched or moved by the daily and tragic toll on the lives of ordinary Malaysians because of the runaway crime situation, particularly in Johor Baru which the police had not been able to eradicate its appellation as “capital of crime in Malaysia”, as compared to protecting the Umno/BN political leaders and regime from civic and democratic challenge from the people!

NONE The re-arrest of PKR MP for Batu, Tian Chua, Anything But Umno (ABU) chief Haris Ibrahim and PAS activist Tamrin Ghafar, together with veteran activist Hishamuddin Rais and student activist Safwan Anang and charging them under the Sedition Act is an illustration of the warped sense of priorities of the top  police leadership in the country.

It is now very clear that the police application last Friday to remand Tian Chua, Haris and Tamrin for another seven days for investigations under the Sedition Act 1948 was a gross abuse of power and the legal process, as there was no need for the police to detain the trio even for an extra minute - as illustrated by the immediate preferring of the charges of sedition against the trio yesterday without any further remand or  investigations.

With the police caught red-handed in unnecessarily applying for a seven-day remand of the trio, probably just to satisfy the vendetta and vindictive ego of the most political “Home Minister” in the nation’s history, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, how can Khalid convince Malaysians that he would be a bulwark against any police abuses of power when he did nothing to stop gross abuses of police power in wanting to remand the trio by another seven days?

It is fortunate that the country is having judicial officers like the magistrate Norashikin Sahat who is a better guardian of the law and protector of the public interest than the police, and who rejected the police application to remand the trio by another seven days when there can be no grounds for such an application.

Can Khalid explain how his claim of the police being “fair and unbiased” in carrying out their duties bear scrutiny in the totally unjustifiable police  application for seven-day remand for Tian Chua, Haris and Tamrin last Friday?

LIM KIT SIANG is member of parliament for Gelang Patah.