ISU PENAHANAN ONG SING
YEE BERKAITAN KES MEMIJAK
GAMBAR PERDANA MENTERI
DAN ISTERI PERDANA MENTERI.
Satu komentar :
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.