Free EO detainees as Bersih rally over, says Pakatan

By Boo Su-Lyn
July 15, 2011 | The Malaysian Insider

KUALA LUMPUR, July 15 — Pakatan Rakyat (PR) demanded today for the immediate release of the six Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) members held under the Emergency Ordinance 1969 as the Bersih rally was over.

“709 is over. There is no case or justification to hold (Sungai Siput MP Dr Michael) Jeyakumar (Devaraj) or the PSM six,” DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang told reporters today, referring to the July 9 Bersih rally that drew tens of thousands.

Lim’s joint press conference with PAS’s Kubang Kerian MP Salahuddin Ayub and PKR’s Subang MP R. Sivarasa was held after they visited Dr Jeyakumar at the Bukit Aman police headquarters here.

“This has created a very bad image for the country and the prime minister,” said Lim, the Ipoh Timur MP.

Foreign media have excoriated the Najib administration over its handling of the electoral reform rally at Kuala Lumpur, where authorities fired teargas and water cannons after locking down the city.

The police had also launched over 100 arrests in the weeks leading up to the rally and arrested nearly 1,700 demonstrators at the protest itself.

International business newspaper The Wall Street Journal accused the government of creating an atmosphere of “fear and repression”.

Other influential American and British publications that joined the chorus of criticism include the Guardian, television channels (Al-Jazeera), and also top regional newspapers like the Singapore Straits Times and Jakarta Post.

Sivarasa pointed out today that the six PSM members were first arrested under the EO on July 2 for their alleged involvement in the Bersih rally.

The human rights lawyer said that charge was later withdrawn and amended to a “more general” charge of threatening national security.

“These allegations have no basis,” said Sivarasa.

The EO, which allows for detention without trial, was enacted in 1969 as a temporary measure to respond to the May 13 race riots.

Apart from Dr Jeyakumar, the other detainees are PSM deputy chairman M. Saraswathy, central committee members Choo Chon Kai and M. Sugumaran, Sungai Siput branch secretary A. Letchumanan and national Youth chief R. Sarathbabu.

They were arrested in Penang on June 25 along with two dozen other PSM members for allegedly planning to “wage war against the Yang di-Pertuan Agong”, after police found in their possession T-shirts bearing the faces of former communist leaders.

Police later dropped all charges against the six but immediately rearrested them under the EO and charged the remaining 24 with possession of Bersih material and involvement in an illegal organisation.