[ENGLISH VERSION BELOW] Eliminating Deaths In Custody Together (Edict) turut berasa gusar terhadap tindakan pihak kerajaan yang telah menimbulkan kemarahan di kalangan masyarakat sejak daripada perintah kawalan pergerakan bermula pada 18 Mac.
Kerajaan, tanpa kelulusan Parlimen, telah membuat keputusan agar hukuman bagi melanggar perintah kawalan pergerakan adalah penjara walaupun terdapat hukuman alternatif dalam undang-undang berkenaan.
Walaupun arahan tersebut bukan dibuat secara bertulis kepada mahkamah, namun ia adalah jelas, bilamana 13 pusat tahanan yang baru telahpun dikuatkuasakan bagi memenjarakan pesalah-pesalah perintah kawalan pergerakan.
Terdahulu, kami telah mengeluarkan kenyataan tentang tindakan-tindakan Menteri Perumahan dan Kerajaan Tempatan Zuraida Kamaruddin dan Perdana Menteri Muhyiddin Yassin yang melanggar perintah kawalan pergerakan. Zuraida menghadiri perhimpunan awam manakala Muhyidin membeli belah dengan isterinya.
Pada 18 April, dilaporkan bahawa Timbalan Menteri Kesihatan Dr Noor Azmi Ghazali dan Menteri Besar Terengganu Dr Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar telah melanggar perintah kawalan pergerakan. Juga dilaporkan, Menteri Hal Ehwal Agama Dr Zulkifli Mohamad Al-Bakri telah melanggar perintah kawalan pergerakan.
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Terdapat gambar-gambar Noor Azmi dan individu-individu lain makan bersama semasa beliau melawat satu pusat tahfiz. Terdapat juga gambar-gambar Ahmad Samsuri dan sekumpulan individu yang turut hadir bersama beliau semasa lawatan bekas MB Terengganu di kediaman beliau. Juga terdapat gambar-gambar Zulkifli dalam satu perbincangan berkumpulan mengenai penerbitan buku.
Sukar untuk dipercayai sekiranya mereka yang tersebut sedang menyediakan operasi perkhidmatan penting seperti dalam senarai yang diwartakan.
Bilangan pesalah perintah kawalan pergerakan yang didenda dan dipenjara kini telah mencecah ribuan orang. Namun begitu, belum ada satu tindakan pun yang diambil terhadap para menteri dan timbalan menteri.
Menurut satu laporan berita, Menteri Pertahanan Ismail Sabri yang juga mewakili Majlis Keselamatan Negara telah mengatakan bahawa, “Kami serahkan kepada pihak polis untuk menyiasat” memandangkan laporan polis telah dibuat terhadap sebahagian daripada mereka.
Meskipun sikap “mengatasi undang-undang” di kalangan ahli politik ini bukanlah diluar jangkaan, perenggan (2) Perkara 145 Perlembagaan Persekutuan mewajibkan peguam negara menasihati “Jemaah Menteri atau mana-mana Menteri” dalam hal undang-undang.
Perenggan 3 pula memberikan kuasa kepada peguam negara untuk menjalankan prosiding bagi sesuatu kesalahan.
Tujuan Perkara 145 diperuntukkan adalah antara lain untuk memastikan bahawa setiap orang diberikan layanan sama rata dibawah undang-undang, begitu juga dengan mereka yang memegang kuasa eksekutif dan perundangan.
Oleh sebab ribuan orang telah “dihukum” dengan “digari, direman dan dipenjarakan”, termasuk golongan miskin, mengapa tidak para menteri?
Bukankah peguam negara telah menasihati para menteri tersebut bahawa mereka telah melanggar perintah kawalan pergerakan? Bukankah peguam negara telah mengarahkan pihak polis memberikan “layanan” sedemikian? Bukankah ini telah termaktub dalam Perkara 8 Perlembagaan Persekutuan yang memastikan layanan yang sama rata di bawah undang-undang?
Walaupun tindakan pelanggaran undang-undang tersebut telah menimbulkan kegemparan dan reaksi pihak polis yang hanya “memekakkan telinga” terhadap aduan dan rungutan masyarakat tersebut, masih tiada sebarang komen daripada pihak peguam negara.
Justeru kami menyeru agar kerajaan, daripada perdana menteri hinggalah ke penjawat awam menunjukkan teladan yang baik kepada masyarakat dan memberikan kerjasama kepada pihak polis untuk ditahan, digari, direman dan didakwa. Kami turut menggesa peguam negara untuk menjelaskan sikap berdiam diri beliau.
Kami juga ingin mengingatkan peguam negara untuk memastikan agar tuntutan undang-undang terlaksana, meskipun terhadap ahli kabinet yang ingkar.
Edict
English version
Attorney general must act against ministers who flout the law and the police who turn a blind eye
Eliminating Deaths In Custody Together (Edict) shares the exasperation of the public over the outrages which are being committed by the government during the period of movement control order which began on 18 March.
The government – without approval of Parliament – has in effect decided that the punishment for violation of the movement control order is imprisonment – although the law provides alternative punishments.
Though not in the form of a written directive to the courts, the signal is clear: the creation of 13 new detention centres has commenced. Offenders will be imprisoned.
We have previously pointed out movement control order violations by Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin and Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin. Zuraida addressed a public assembly and Muhyiddin went shopping with his wife.
On 18 April, there were reports of Deputy Health Minister Noor Azmi Ghazali and the Terengganu Menteri Besar Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar violating the movement control order. There were also earlier reports of Religious Affairs Minister Zulkifli Mohamad al-Bakri flouting the movement control order.
There are photos of Noor Azmi and others eating together during a visit to a Tahfiz school. There are photos of a group who went with Ahmad Samsuri on a social visit to a former MB. There are photos of Zulkifli having a meeting to discuss the publication of a book.
It is inconceivable that they were providing any gazetted essential service.
The cases of offenders being fined and jailed now run into the thousands. Yet, no action has been taken against the ministers and deputy ministers.
According to a news report, Defence Minister Ismail Sabri, the public face of the National Security Council, has said “leave it to the police to investigate” since police reports have been made against some of them.
Partly in anticipation of just such “above the law” behaviour by politicians, the Federal Constitution, in Article 145, paragraph 2, requires the attorney general to advise “the Cabinet or any Minister” on legal matters.
Paragraph 3 gives the attorney general power to institute proceedings for offences.
The intent of Article 145 is, amongst other things, to ensure that everyone is treated equally under the law, even those who wield executive and legislative power.
Since the “punishment” of “handcuffs, remand and imprisonment” has been meted out to thousands, including the abject poor, why are ministers spared?
Shouldn’t the attorney general advise the ministers they have contravened the movement control order? Shouldn’t the attorney general instruct the police to “give them the treatment”? Isn’t that warranted under Article 8 of the Federal Constitution, which assures equal treatment under the law?
Yet, amidst the public furore over the flouting of the law and the “don’t see politicians, don’t hear complaints about them” approach of the police, there has been no comment by the attorney general.
We call upon members of the government, from the prime minister down, to lead by example and offer themselves to the police for arrest, handcuffing, remand, and subsequent prosecution. We call upon the attorney general to explain his silence.
Eliminating Deaths In Custody Together (Edict)
19 April 2020
AGENDA RAKYAT - Lima perkara utama
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