Party secretary-general S Arutchelvan accuses the police of hoodwinking the public into believing its six leaders are being held under the Emergency Ordinance.
Party secretary-general S Arutchelvan said: “Yesterday, we learnt that the six were blindfolded and assigned numbers similar to ISA detainees. They were told that they will be called by their numbers and not by their names, just like the ISA arrest procedure.”
The six are Sungai Siput MP Dr D Michael Jeyakumar, 56, party national deputy chief M Sarasvathy, 58, national Youth chief R Sarath Babu, 25, central committee member Choo Chon Kai, 33, Sungai Siput branch chief M Sukumaran, 50, and his secretary A Letchumanan, 49.
Originally, they were detained and remanded for investigations under Section 122 of the Penal Code for allegedly waging war against the King.
PSM’s suspicion that the six are detained under ISA was further fuelled when it was learnt that the six are being held in solitary confinement at the police remand centre (PRC) at Batu 5, Jalan Ipoh, in Kuala Lumpur.
Arutchelvan was livid when police misled the family members of the six detainees into believing that they are being held at the Bukit Aman lock-up.
“Detainees under the EO are not blindfolded and mainly held in district police lock-ups but in the case of the six, they are in solitary confinement at the PRC. All these are indications that the six are subjected to the ISA-style arrest and not treated as EO detainees,” he said.
He said that the two so-called foreign agents allegedly linked to PSM have been questioned by the police and cleared of all charges and deported, thus putting paid to Utusan Malaysia’s hollow allegations which was entertained by Deputy Inspector-General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar.
Arutchelvan urged Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein to stop their manipulations and chicanery and immediately release the six detainees being held illegally.
PSM a thorn in Umno’s side
Meanwhile, PSM’s former national coordinator K Kunasekaran alleged that the police are now hunting for evidence to strengthen and justify the arrest of the six when they brought Sarasvathy blindfolded and in handcuffs to the PSM Jelapang branch on Tuesday.
Sarasvathy, a diabetic with a thyroid problem, was denied water by plainclothes policemen who also prevented her from talking to PSM members who had gathered outside the office.
He said that the police ransacked the office for nearly an hour and took away the branch’s minutes book and documents related to the party ideology.
Kunasekaran said that the crackdown on PSM members was the work of Umno which is taking revenge on the party because it is proving to be a thorn in BN’s side, especially in Perak.
“The police are breathing down our backs with all sorts of trumped-up charges because of our quest to educate people on their rights as citizens of the country,” he said. “Umno had been taking the people for a ride for the past 53 years.”
“We are a people-oriented party consistently taking the heat from the authorities in our stand-off with them as we go to the ground to fight for the rights of people, especially the lower-income group on issues like land matters and housing problems.”
“This has not gone down well with the state Umno which sees us as a serious threat in the coming general election,” Kunasekaran said.
He said the biggest BN’s casualty was former MIC chief S Samy Vellu who was defeated by Jeyakumar in Sungai Siput during the 2008 general election, which upset Umno.
According to Kunasekaran, there is speculation that Umno may field Samy Vellu’s son S Vel Paari in Sungai Siput and with Jeyakumar out of the way, it will be easier for BN to retake this seat.
Deputy IGP has axe to grind
Another sore point for Umno against Jeyakumar is his filing of a class action suit against the government for denying him the annual development allocations for his Sungai Siput parliamentary seat.
Kunasekaran also claimed that Khalid had an axe to grind with Jeyakumar and the other five detainees as they had crossed swords with him during the national bicycle campaign orgainsed by People Oppressed network group ( JERIT) and PSM in 2008 when Khalid was the former Selangor police chief.
Kunasekaran claimed that Umno hopes that by removing top PSM leaders from the political arena, it will weaken the socialist party in the state.
Kunasekaran explained that PSM’s three-day nationwide roadshow from June 24 was to create awareness of BN’s poor governance and urged the people to vote BN out of office in the general election.
“We had nothing to do with the Bersih 2.0 peaceful public rally scheduled for July 9, but police have linked us to it,” he said.
“The BN government had initially termed the Bersih 2.0 rally as illegal but now both the King and (Prime Minister) Najib (Tun Razak) have given due recognition to this event,” he said.
“Does this mean that our six PSM leaders will also be freed as they have been linked to the event?” he asked.
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