MEDIA STATEMENT BY PARTI RAKYAT MALAYSIA (PRM)

PERAK POLICE CHIEF MUST APOLOGISE PUBLICLY

PRM views seriously the statement made yesterday by the Perak Police Chief, Datuk Syed Abdul Rahman Abdul Kadir. He said that the police are monitoring activities of 11 so-called extremist organisations including NGOs, which according to him “are attempting to influence the thinking of the people to oppose the government”. He claims some of them are challenging the police by holding “ceramah” without permit. He warns that the police have the power to use the emergency regulation to impose curfew.

We wish to reiterate the following:

• First, we challenge the Perak Police Chief to name openly the 11 alleged organisations, and give complete reasons as to why he considers them to be “extremist”. We hope that he is not hiding behind vague accusations.
• Second, we uphold that in a country practising democracy, it is the right of every citizen to challenge or oppose the government of the day. In fact, they also have the right to influence others to do the same. It is foolish for anybody to ask all those who want to oppose the government to stand for election, as the police chief has suggested.
• Third, police officers should not try to behave like certain government leaders, who often resort to warning and intimidating the people. Their main role is to maintain peace and order professionally, guided by principles laid out in the Constitution and the laws of the country.
• Fourth, the police must understand that sometimes “ceramah” are held without permit because the police violate fundamental human rights by refusing to issue permits without giving reasonable reasons. It is often, in fact, that the police convey their decisions on the permits at the very last moment, when it is too late for the organisers to cancel the “ceramah”. It appears that the police now are only too willing to carry out without question the commands of their political masters who have their own interests.
• Fifth, police officers must be responsible and professional, and they should not imitate blindly the antics of certain political leaders, who are only too quick to accuse any person or organisation opposing the government as acting like the Ma’unah or communists.
• Finally, PRM wishes to urge Datuk Syed Abdul Rahman, as the Perak Police Chief, to provide full explanations and reasons for his allegations. Failing that, he should withdraw them and apologise to the public.

Dr Syed Husin Ali

President

PRM

9th September 2000