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Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Sedition victims rap IGP over double standard

Political cartoonist Zunar was waiting for inspector-general of police Khalid Abu Bakar's brother to be detained in the same manner that he was.

However, the cartoonist, whose real name is Zulkiflee Anwar Haque, was disappointed when the police chief cleared his brother Abdullah and other protesters without proper investigation.

Zunar himself was arrested late at night and is facing nine charges under the Sedition Act 1948 for belittling the judiciary following the conviction of Anwar Ibrahim.

"I was expecting an immediate tweet from the IGP like he did with me but it didn't happen.

"I expected the police to go to his brother's house but it didn't happen, I waited until 3am for him (Khalid) to send people but it didn't happen," Zunar (right) quipped.

Speaking to Malaysiakini, the cartoonist decried the "multiple double standards" on the part of the police chief.

Zunar had in a Twitter posting on Feb 10 called judges who sentenced Anwar as "lackeys" prompting an immediate counter tweet from Khalid for the police to probe him.

He was arrested on the same day.

Lawyer Eric Paulsen, another victim of the Sedition Act 1948, also criticised Khalid for the double standard.

"Certainly the police should have at the very least called the perpetrators in for questioning.

"Compared to the over 100 politically motivated arrests, many of them were arrested and remanded.

"But in this particularly instance, the IGP seems to have acquitted all these protesters, many of whom are Umno members even without an investigation," he told Malaysiakini.

Paulsen was arrested by some 20 police officers on the night of Jan 12 over a tweet criticising the Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim) of "spreading extremism" in Friday sermons.

He was charged four days later.

Even though both Zunar and Paulsen had to spend several nights in the lock-up and were charged with sedition, neither of them wanted the church protesters to be probed under the colonial era law.

Paulsen said the Penal Code can sufficiently deal with the protesters who had demanded a church in Taman Medan to remove its cross or they would "do it themselves".

The duo said the fact Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had declared the incident as "seditious" within hours after Khalid stated otherwise proved that the Sedition Act is arbitrary and can be abused.

"There is a difference of interpretation of what amounts to sedition and the biggest complaint is no one really knows.

"As citizens we must be able to manage our lives in accordance to the law but if you are not sure what are the boundaries then it is difficult to know what amounts to sedition or not.

"The confusion between the IGP and home minister is a clear example of why we should abolish the Sedition Act," he said.

Echoing this, Zunar said if the ambiguity in the Sedition Act is not addressed, then it is up to those in power to arbitrarily decide what is seditious or not.

"The question now is to determine what is seditious, it is now being decided by individuals which should not be the case, the law should be clear.

"In his brother's case, the IGP was quick to say it is not seditious but in my case, he quickly said it is seditious.

"It is for this reason the Sedition Act should be repealed," he added.

Msiakini

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