The Malaysian Insider

UPDATE 2

PENANG, May 30 — Police today questioned DAP leader Lim Kit Siang for alleged defamation and sedition in his Penanti by-election ceramahs where he blamed the Perak crisis on Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

Kit Siang said Chief Inspector Pang Meng Tak, in charge of a ceramah last Sunday, had lodged the report over his remarks at the gathering that the Prime Minister was responsible for the Perak constitutional crisis.

The police arrived at Kit Siang’s Island Glade home at 11.30am to take his statement.

His son Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng and DAP national chairman Karpal Singh arrived shortly after.

The Ipoh Timur MP’s statement was taken by investigating officer Norazizi Saad.

"The chief inspector felt I committed sedition and criminal defamation against the prime minister because according to the police report, I said that Najib is responsible for the Perak constitutional crisis, that he orchestrated the Perak constitutional crisis and the ensuing developments and that during the following three months, the public confidence in him has fallen to a new low because the various national institutions have been further compromised and made to serve the political agenda for the illegal power grab by the police, Election Commission, civil service, judiciary and others," Kit Siang told reporters after the police questioning.

Asked what he told the police officer, Kit Siang replied: "Well, I just said, meet in court."

Kit Siang added that it is "virtually a foregone conclusion" that action would be taken against him as the police report was lodged by the police themselves.

"The chief inspector consulted two senior officers and felt a report had to be lodged," said Kit Siang who called the questioning an abuse of power.

"These abuses of power are among the reasons why the legitimacy, the credibility of Najib as prime minister has continued to come under great strain and doubt because he is not prepared to fulfil his own slogan of 1 Malaysia, People First, Performance Now and be open and accountable," he said.

The veteran politician, who appeared in good spirits despite the police questioning, could not resist comparing the situation with the era of Najib's father's Tun Abdul Razak, who was also Malaysia's second prime minister.

"When his father was a prime minister, he never touched me for sedition, but he is doing what his father has never done," he quipped.

Guan Eng, who is the DAP secretary-general, said the party strongly condemned the "harassment of top leaders."

"We hope that the police can go and catch criminals as the crime situation in Malaysia is very bad instead of wasting time and money abusing the law and harassing Pakatan Rakyat leaders," said Guan Eng. "The police appear to be bodyguards of Barisan Nasional instead of bodyguards of the people."

Kit Siang had earlier said police officers came to a ceramah in Penanti last night where he was speaking to inform him that he would be questioned in connection with defamation and sedition in his campaign speeches.

“Apparently I’m wanted by police 4 sedition & criminal defamation of Najib + Malaysia,” Kit Siang posted in his Twitter account at about 1.30am.

“I told the police to come to my Penang house to question me. I don’t know what it’s about as I gave three speeches that night,” he told The Malaysian Insider.

In one of his speeches last Sunday at a ceramah in Bukit Mertajam, the veteran politician said Najib was the primary target in Penanti by-election as it was "a referendum on the credibility, integrity and legitimacy of Najib in his second month as Prime Minister".

He accused Najib of allowing the police to conduct an unprecedented raid on the DAP national head office in Petaling Jaya,

He added Najib’s “1 Malaysia. People First. Performance Now” slogan has been shredded and discredited with the Perak political crisis, abuse of police power in curbing political dissent, inequal distribution of scholarships and the delayed release of the audit on the Port Klang Free Zone.

He has been campaigning strongly in the Penanti by-election despite Barisan Nasional’s absence on the ballot paper. Polling day is tomorrow.

Kit Siang this morning noted the new government method to “fix” the opposition or dissent by using sedition and criminal defamation charges instead of the Internal Security Act (ISA) that provides detention without trial.

Karpal is already facing a sedition charge while rights activist Wong Chin Huat was held recently for alleged sedition.

Kit Siang and Karpal have previously been held under the ISA.

Controversial blogger and Malaysia Today editor Raja Petra Kamarudin has been slapped with criminal defamation and sedition charges apart from being previously held under the ISA for allegations linking Najib and his wife to the murder of Mongolian beauty Altantuya Shaariibuu.

RPK, as he is popularly known, has skipped bail and is said to have left the country.

The Sedition Act is, however, perceived to be less oppressive than the ISA but yet drafted in such a way that it gives the government absolute power to make arrests on its political enemies.

According to section 4 (1) of the Sedition Act, a person is considered to have committed an offence under this law if he or she attempts to do, or make any preparation to do, or conspires with any person to do, any act which has or would, if done, have a seditious tendency.

It further read that any person is found to have committed an offence under this law if he or she utters any seditious words, prints, publishes, sells, offers for sale, distributes, or reproduces any seditious publications or imports any seditious publications.

Yet in all of this, there is no real and clear definitive guideline as to what constitutes sedition.

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