Letter to the Editor
Ezam's Arrest:
If arrests can be made on the basis of police reports, then we demand to know why the police have not arrested the people against whom Mohd Ezam had made numerous police reports. Why has no one been arrested following Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim's many police reports implicating Dr Mahathir, Tun Daim, Dato' Seri Rafidah Aziz and others?
Ordinary citizens have every right to question why the police have not displayed similar enthusiasm, efficiency, and professionalism in all instances when police reports have been lodged.
Let the police not complain if their one-sided and selective action leads the people to conclude that the police have invariably become the tools of political oppression serving the interests of Barisan Nasional politicians.
The police themselves, and especially high-ranking officers, bear the blame for this public impression. As an institution, the police should represent law and order but their conduct since Anwar's arrest in 1998 has consistently raised serious questions about their impartiality and propriety. As Ezam's arrest and the arrests of other people peacefully protesting in support of Ezam demonstrate, the police today have failed to measure up to the peoples' expectations.
Ezam's arrest and remand suggests a sinister political motive behind the most recent police action against a leader of a lawful opposition party. Ezam has openly and repeatedly denied stating that he would organise daily street demonstrations to topple the government, which was what Mingguan Malaysia attributed to him.
Despite Ezam's repeated denial, why do the Barisan Nasional - and especially UMNO politicians - - persist in condemning Ezam over this alleged statement? Why do they readily accept the accuracy of a Mingguan Malaysia report?
The people have learnt over the years - and never more clearly than since the Anwar affair - that our local newspapers and new agencies are quite capable of concocting stories and even lying without remorse on behalf of their political masters.
We in Aliran have had direct experience of this utter lack of professionalism and concern for truth among the controlled media before the 10th general election. For example, The Star of 16 November 1999, referring to the Bandar Tun Razak parliamentary seat which Dr Chandra Muzaffar was expected to contest, reported that:
On 18 November 2000, just before Nomination Day for the Lunas by-election, Bernama quoted Lim Kit Siang to the effect that:
The truth was that Kit Siang was not in Lunas on that day. He did not speak to any reporters. He made no announcement concerning Barisan Alternatif's candidate. In fact, he had not visited Lunas prior to 19 November 2000.
No matter. The gutter journalism that has become rampant among the controlled media presented what it concocted as fact! And shamelessly, when such lies were exposed, the media agencies or newspapers neither apologised nor retracted their reports. They quite happily returned to their business as usual, which included proffering filth and lies.
If the public know this much about our controlled media, don't the police know, too? Under such circumstances, how could Ezam � or anyone else � be arrested and detained on the basis of a newspaper report the veracity of which had not even been impartially determined?
Is it surprising then that many opposition leaders suspect Ezam's arrest as a prelude to a sinister plot that is being hatched with the 11th General Election in mind? These days, is there a better way to knock out opposition leaders and candidates than through disqualification following a court conviction? After all, it only takes a fine of RM2,000 to disqualify someone from standing for election. There is not even the need for a jail sentence, which would only agitate and motivate opposition supporters to continue their struggle with greater determination.
Indeed: is a game being plotted to undermine further the democratic process by making the opposition less and less capable of fielding credible candidates?
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Aliran is appalled that keADILan Youth Chief Mohd Ezam Mohd Nor was arrested on the basis of an unsubstantiated police report lodged on 5 March 2001. What is shocking is that this arrest took place within hours following UMNO Youth's lodging of its report. It certainly creates the impression that the police were acting on cue.