On Wednesday September 5, I accompanied a 19 year old teenager Ong Sing Yee to the Johor Bahru Central Police Station. She had earlier seen her photo and read in the China Press that the police were looking for a number of people
including her to assist the police who were investigating an incident
at Dataran Merdeka on the night of Merdeka, where apparently some people
had stepped on the photos of Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and his wife Rosmah Mansor.
At
the Johor Bahru Central police station, and where the initial
questioning took place, I must acknowledge that the police treated her
with decorum and professionalism. The police officer questioning her
even asked me to buy her food and drinks. After her statement was taken,
the police informed her that she is being investigated for committing
an offence under s.4(1) of the Sedition Act and she was going to be
brought to Kuala Lumpur for further investigation. I had earlier told
her that she must be prepared for that the police will take her to Kuala
Lumpur for further investigation. The police officers did inform her
and me, that they will before taking her to Kuala Lumpur go to her house
to retrieve the T-Shirt which she had worn during the night of the
incident.
It
has now come to my knowledge that, prior to taking her to Kuala Lumpur,
she was then taken to the Johor Police Headquarters where she was
further questioned and this time without the presence of any lawyer.
Ong Sing Yee hardly can speak a word of Malay or English. Apparently a
statement was taken where she was being held at the Johor Police
Headquarters, a police interpreter then translated her statement and she
was asked signed her statement which she did. She certainly never had
the opportunity to verify independently if her whole statement was
translated to her or even accurately translated or the statement
contained information which she had never said and those statements not
read back to her. I stand corrected on this issue.
Ong
Sing Yee is now being investigated under s.4 of the Sedition Act 1948.
Under s.4, it is an offence for any person who does or attempt to any
act which has or would have a seditious tendency. Ong Sing Yee’s case,
could a Malaysian first, where stepping on the prime minister photo and
even worst his wife can now tantamount to a seditious act. Mischief
making? Probably. Sedition? Surely not!
Nevertheless,
it is agreeable that it is bad manners and uncouth behaviour to step on
one’s photograph although it’s becoming the norm now days in Malaysia.
No one condones what she did but the question is why only her and why
only now. We have witnessed army personnel doing “butt exercise” against
Ambiga. The Chief Minister of Penang Lim Guan Eng, his photo is
trampled ever so regularly and there was an incident of some youths
urinating on Tuan Guru Nik Aziz’s poster. Going by the police’s
exuberance in charging Ong Sing Yee with committing sedition, surely the
police must arrest and charge the perpetrators who did the same to
Ambiga, Lim Guan Eng or Tuan Guru Nik Aziz. Or is it a case of different
rules applying for different people.
Ong
Sing Yee may have her own reasons who she stepped of the Prime Minister
and Rosmah Mansor’s photos, but she has now apologised to the Malaysian
public. Thus, it’s time that the police discontinue further
investigation on Ong Sing Yee. To pursue a case against Ong Sing Yee but
being indifferent on cases involving people like Ambiga, Lim Guan Eng
or Tuan Guru Nik Aziz would simply be construed as a case of
vindictiveness, persecution and double standard.
Surely,
the police can be forgiving and magnanimous and with Ong Sing Yee now
having made an open apology to all Malaysians, which also includes the
prime Minister and his wife,
Let the Malaysian public see this magnanimous side of the police.
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