Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng has blasted the heavy handed arrests of participants in peaceful rallies as “double standards”.

 

Commenting on the arrest of Shah Alam MP Khalid Samad in the dead of night, Lim noted that those who had threatened bodily harm, or who had been involved in loss of billions or ringgit, had allegedly never received such treatment.

 

“Is it necessary to put on a show of brute naked force by conducting such arrests in the dead of the night, when Khalid would never run away but would be willing to go to any police station in the daytime as requested?

 

“No pro-BN demonstrators have been arrested in the dead of the night like Khalid after their ‘illegal’ rallies in Penang government offices in Komtar or at DAP Headquarters in Kuala Lumpur.

 

“Again this is a clear case of double-standards and selective arrests by the inspector-general of police(IGP),” said Lim in a statement today.

 

“Has Malaysia now descended to new depths where a peaceful gathering is now a more dangerous offence than crimes that cause bodily harm or financial scandals that cause billions of ringgit in losses?” he asked.

Arrests 'arbitrary'

 

Four have been arrested since the peaceful Kita Lawan rally in Kuala Lumpur yesterday evening.

 

They add to the 120 that the NGO Political Studies for Change (KPRU) note have been arrested or probed in just the space of over a month since the jailing of opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim.

Lim also cited the arrests of PAS deputy president Mohamed Sabu in Penang, PKR Secretary-General Rafizi Ramli and social activist Hishamuddin Rais.

"Such high-handed and arbitrary arrests commanded by the present IGP has also given Malaysia an international black eye in terms of human rights," asserted the Penang chief minister.