{"id":12207,"date":"2015-02-25T15:00:38","date_gmt":"2015-02-25T07:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/?p=12207"},"modified":"2015-02-25T15:15:41","modified_gmt":"2015-02-25T07:15:41","slug":"d5-sedition-arrests-a-case-of-misplaced-priorities-by-the-igp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/d5-sedition-arrests-a-case-of-misplaced-priorities-by-the-igp\/","title":{"rendered":"D5, sedition arrests; cases of misplaced priorities by the IGP"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_12208\" style=\"width: 405px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/IGP.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12208\" class=\"wp-image-12208\" style=\"padding-left: 20px;\" src=\"http:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/IGP.jpg\" alt=\"IGP\" width=\"395\" height=\"237\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-12208\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">D5, is the new task force setup to haul up seditious individuals. (Pic of IGP Khalid Abu Bakar from Malaysiakini)<\/p><\/div>\n<p><strong>By Ralvin Manikam<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Word of a new sedition task force set up by the police is out, called D5, indicating a possible increase in arrests related to sedition henceforth.<\/p>\n<p>Pandan MP Rafizi Ramli was the first to get news of D5 as he was questioned by the police yesterday over a comment he made over social media about Anwar Ibrahim\u2019s sodomy conviction.<\/p>\n<p>There has been no news from the government or the police of the setting up of the sedition task force, but the ramp-up of sedition related arrests recently may be a sign of more arrests to come.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Opposition leaders warn\u00a0of misplaced government efforts with regards to this move<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>When questioned by reporters yesterday, Rafizi said that the sedition dragnet had hauled up many who did not pose real a threat to national security.<\/p>\n<p>In the past, no action was taken against protestors who had threatened opposition leaders with May 13, or Perkasa\u2019s call to behead certain PAS leaders who questioned the Selangor Bible seizure last year, or UMNO\u2019s insinuations against the Chinese community in Kedah for allegedly \u201cburning pages of the Quran\u201d- which was found to be entirely made up.<\/p>\n<p>This misplaced priority on the part of the police, he said, would only lead to a culture of fear amongst the people.<\/p>\n<p>DAP Parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang said the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Khalid Abu Bakar has \u201ccompletely lost his sense of priorities\u201d by setting up the world\u2019s first police special unit on sedition, instead of focusing on the real and present danger of Islamic State (IS) amongst the youth in Malaysia.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt a time when the IGP\u2019s eye must be unfailingly focused on the new real crime and threat not only to Malaysia and the world &#8211; the rise of the IS\u00a0with its siren appeal to Malaysian Muslims for a Muslim Caliphate stretching beyond national borders and space &#8211; Khalid\u2019s focus is fixed in the wrong direction,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>In the last week alone, the police had brought seven people into custody for making statements against Anwar Ibrahim\u2019s guilty verdict, which was recently upheld by the Federal Court.<\/p>\n<p>These seven include Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad (PKR Youth chief ), Rafizi Ramli (Pandan MP), S. Arutchelvan (PSM President), Adam Adli (student activist), Fariz Musa (PKR Jingga 13 movement leader), Nga Kor Ming (Taiping MP), and Laurence Jeyaraj (activist).<\/p>\n<p>Lim said that with the establishing of D5, it indicates that speech crime offenders would be dealt with swiftly, as Khalid tweets commands to act against Pakatan Rakyat leaders and Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) activists.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUndoubtedly, Khalid has made a name for himself in the international fraternity of No. 1 policeman in the world, for he must be the first head of police in a country to set up a special unit on sedition, as if Malaysians have just set a new world record as the most seditious people in the world!\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sedition blitzkrieg more important than threat of IS<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Lim said that the real threat to national security is IS, that stretches beyond national borders.<\/p>\n<p>Around the world, propaganda from IS has reached women and men who after being influenced, decide to join their militant ranks. IS is\u00a0notorious for their executions of men, women and children and those who indulge in practices counter to their version of the Islamic faith. These deviant practices include watching a football match between Iraq and Jordan; 13 teenage boys were reportedly executed by firing squad in northern Iraq for \u201cbreaking Islamic principles\u201d by doing so.<\/p>\n<p>The group also tries to lure young girls to join IS\u2019s sex Jihad, who by joining their ranks would have to marry militants and please them sexually.<\/p>\n<p>Last week, a 14-year-old Malaysian girl was nabbed at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport before attempting to fly to Cairo, where she would marry a student and head to Syria.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_12209\" style=\"width: 401px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/isgirl210215435453e.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12209\" class=\"wp-image-12209\" style=\"padding-right: 20px;\" src=\"http:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/isgirl210215435453e.jpg\" alt=\"isgirl210215435453e\" width=\"391\" height=\"220\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-12209\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pic of nabbed 14 year old girl about to join IS. Pic from The Star\/ Asia News Network.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Malaysian police say that previously, they had managed to stop seven women from going to Syria since last year, but had failed to prevent seven others from leaving.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the looming threat of IS, the government has proven to be more inclined to nip-in-the-bud any sentiment of disapproval of Anwar Ibrahim\u2019s guilty verdict.<\/p>\n<p>So great is the UMNO-led government\u2019s need to force public approval of Anwar\u2019s guilty sentence that its youth faction is working on a nationwide road show to silence critics and clear its name of any link to a conspiracy. In the \u201cporno road show\u201d as dubbed by some political watchers, public prosecutor Shafee Abdullah who had led the team against Anwar in the Sodomy 2 trial would be revealing Saiful\u2019s testimony of details about the alleged foreplay that had taken place before the act of sodomy.<\/p>\n<p>This constant government bashing of Anwar even after the guilty sentencing, the arrests for tweets and speeches critical of the verdict, and the subsequent setting up of D5, paints Khalid as the \u201cIGP with the wrong obsession\u201d, according to Lim.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAn IGP worth his salt must fight real criminals and not to turn patriotric and civic-minded Malaysians, whether PR leaders or NGO activists, into imagined enemies of the state and criminals.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201c Malaysians want an IGP who can fight real criminals, and not one busy creating imaginary criminals,&#8221; Lim said. -The Rocket<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Ralvin Manikam Word of a new sedition task force set up by the police is out, called D5, indicating a possible increase in arrests related to sedition henceforth. Pandan MP Rafizi Ramli was the first to get news of D5 as he was questioned by the police yesterday over a comment he made over [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12208,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[260],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12207"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12207\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12216,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12207\/revisions\/12216"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}