The DAP today questioned the need for special police unit D5 to investigate sedition cases when the focus should be on the threat and influence of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (Isis) in Malaysia.
Parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang reminded Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar that there were more pressing issues that the police force should be focusing on.
“At a time when the IGP’s eye must be unfailingly focused on the new real crime and threat not only to Malaysia and the world, the rise of Isis with its siren appeal to Malaysian Muslims, Khalid’s focus is fixed in the wrong direction,” he said in a statement today.
Lim said the IGP’s negligence had led to Isis’s success in luring a 14-year-old Malaysian girl to join them in Syria, and warned him that he may go down in history as the “Malaysian IGP with the wrong obsession”.
He added that the country needed an IGP who could fight real criminals, and not Pakatan Rakyat leaders and supporters who did not threaten the nation’s security.
PKR secretary-general Rafizi Ramli yesterday said he was surprised that police have set up the D5 unit to investigate sedition cases, saying that the manpower allocated for the unit could have been better utilised against real crimes.
He said he found out about the unit as he was being taken to record a statement at Bukit Aman yesterday afternoon over a comment he made on social media about Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s sodomy conviction.
Rafizi said among the tasks of the unit included monitoring social media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, to screen for seditious posts online.
“That it exists seems like the PDRM (police) and the authorities will continue to focus on seditious remarks,” he said.
Rafizi added that it would be more practical for the force to just ban social media in the country as police would have more time to focus on crime prevention efforts. – February 24, 2015.
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