The police gave themselves another 'black eye' by arresting PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim, said veteran opposition politician Lim Kit Siang today.

"Yesterday, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi promised that there will not be another 'black eye' trauma for Anwar as what happened 10 years ago.

lim kit siang dap pc 130208 serious "(Yet) this is the second self-administered police black-eye within a week - the other being the completely unjustified three-day 1,600-personnel police operation to lock down the federal capital and the Klang Valley to thwart a massive demonstration in Parliament on July 14 when there was not a single protestor," he added in a statement.

The Ipoh Timur MP said the roadblocks only resulted in "causing great and unnecessary inconvenience and hardships to the people… plunging public confidence in the efficiency, competence and professionalism of the police to an all-time low".

He also criticised the formation of the Royal Police Commission which was supposedly committed to create an efficient, incorruptible, professional world-class police service as a "total waste of time, resources and funds."

Anwar was arrested an hour before the expiry of his 2pm deadline to show up at the Kuala Lumpur police headquarters to be quizzed over a sodomy allegation against him.

While the politician claims that he intended to keep his word to be present, the police however claimed that they had reason to believe he would not show up.

Anwar was released at 9.45am today.

'Unprofressional' conduct

Meanwhile, rights group Suaram also criticised the authorities for being "unprofessional" and arresting Anwar when he had already agreed to cooperate with the police.

"Clearly, the police had gone against their own promise that they will make the arrest if Anwar did not turn up at 2.00pm yesterday.

anwar ibrahim freed from police ipk detention pc 170708 06 "The arrest was clearly made in bad faith to intimidate Anwar his family and his supporters," said Suaram executive director Yap Swee Seng in a statement.

However, he commended the release of the opposition stalwart on bail today without charge.

Yap nevertheless questioned the necessity to arrest and detain Anwar for a night when investigations could have been conducted during office hours.

"Even if the police decided to charge Anwar, he can be summoned to court and face the charges.

"The arrest and overnight detention was totally unnecessary and tantamount to abuse of powers especially when Anwar had just participated in a debate on the oil price hike the night before… and showing no signs of any intention to escape anywhere," he explained.

He also questioned the police’s failure to provide Anwar's lawyers with a copy of the police reports made by the politician’s former aide Saiful Bukhari Azlan.

"Is this the reason why the police are not charging Anwar now, to avoid his lawyers from having access to the police report?" he asked.

In the June 28 report, Saiful claimed that Anwar had sodomised him. The politician claims this is a political conspiracy masterminded by his rivals, but government leaders have denied this.