Agora Society condemns the double standards and hypocrisy of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and his “Madani” (civil and compassionate) government in allowing the police to create white terror and suppress social movement activists.
As far as the Peaceful Assembly Act is concerned, the police on 17 July invoked the Act to suppress the social movement for ‘Justice for Teoh Beng Hock’. But the day before, they obstructed a peaceful and non-violent procession. Some police officers even roughed up the procession, injuring unarmed people.
The police are supposed to help the people by upholding their fundamental rights to assemble and rally as guaranteed by the Federal Constitution. They should also respect the rule of law and the spirit of democracy in the exercise of their public powers.
However, the government and the police have repeatedly failed us.
On the one hand, the prime minister has openly promised to arrange an audience with the family of Teoh Beng Hock.
- Sign up for Aliran's free daily email updates or weekly newsletters or both
- Make a one-off donation to Persatuan Aliran Kesedaran Negara, CIMB a/c 8004240948
- Make a pledge or schedule an auto donation to Aliran every month or every quarter
- Become an Aliran member
But on the other, he has allowed the police to summon and investigate the three persons who convened the march and rally for Teoh’s march for justice: the chairperson of the Teoh Beng Hock Association for Democratic Advancement (TBH-DA), Ng Yap Hwa; Wong Yan Ke; and Wong Voon How.
The action and behaviour of the police is clearly aimed at harassing and suppressing the supporters and social activists of the Teoh Beng Hock Walk for Justice.
After all these ridiculous and outrageous incidents, the credibility of Anwar and his government is gone. [This lost credibility] has not only made the people lose confidence in the police but also made them disappointed in public power.
Agora Society urges the police to stop harassing TBH-DA members and the Walk for Justice participants, to respect the people’s demand for democracy, and to stop wasting police force and time investigating these people.
At the same time, Agora Society demands that the police devote their time and energy to finding out the truth about Teoh Beng Hock’s death, and to finding and prosecuting the suspects who should be held legally responsible.
The government should also immediately reintroduce the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) Bill to clean up and reform our police force and thoroughly investigate cases of police misuse of force resulting in injuries to members of the public. This should be done to restore the people’s confidence in the police force and ensure that it has independent investigative and enforcement powers.
Agora Society would like to remind Anwar and the Pakatan Harapan politicians that they too had been subjected to police interrogation, investigation and psychological torture following peaceful assemblies, and even direct violence and threats by the police when they demonstrated and protested in the streets and raised their demands for democratic reforms.
Now that they are in power, they should be able to empathise with [other peaceful protesters] and not continue to use the violent logic and outdated tactics of suppressing democracy that were used in the past during the Barisan Nasional period.
The names of the ruling parties of Pakatan Harapan includes the words “democratic action”, “people’s justice” and “trust”. But now that they are in the ruling position, why do they have to make the same mistake as the BN by opposing and suppressing the people’s democratic aspirations? Where are the principles of these politicians?
Moreover, the main reason why the truth in the Teoh Beng Hock case could not be revealed and the culprits could not be prosecuted and punished in the past was the authoritarian system under the BN regime.
Pakatan Harapan had two chances to right the wrongs, the first during the brief 22-month rule of the PH 1.0 government. Now PH 2.0 has been in power for a year and eight months.
Yet Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has avoided meeting the Teoh family for so long, only responding to the protests and police violence outside Parliament [on 15 July by saying] he would receive them.
Is this Pakatan’s way of repaying Teoh Beng Hock, a DAP member who sacrificed his life to defend the Pakatan Rakyat state government in Selangor 15 years ago?
If Pakatan Harapan cannot account for the truth of the Teoh Beng Hock case and cannot even do justice, defend the rights and uncover the truth of its own party members, why should the people still believe that this government cares to do something for the lives of the common people?
Teoh Beng Hock’s surviving son is now 14 years old. When will the truth come out in this case that has dragged on for so long? If the PH could not solve the case when they were in power, can we expect the opposition Perikatan Nasional to do the same when they are in power?
Please stop all the hypocritical double standards and use your time in power to fulfil the tasks entrusted to you, including seeking the truth, pursuing justice and reforming the system, so that an incident similar to Teoh Beng Hock’s death will not happen again! – Agora
AGENDA RAKYAT - Lima perkara utama
- Tegakkan maruah serta kualiti kehidupan rakyat
- Galakkan pembangunan saksama, lestari serta tangani krisis alam sekitar
- Raikan kerencaman dan keterangkuman
- Selamatkan demokrasi dan angkatkan keluhuran undang-undang
- Lawan rasuah dan kronisme
