PPS arrests: A case of overdoing it

If the intention was to prevent a crime, a stern warning before the start of the march would have sufficed.

COMMENT

The timing of Sunday’s police action against the PPS contingent marching in the Merdeka parade in Penang appears calculated to send the strongest possible message.

To the man on the street it is unclear which law has been broken, except that it has to do with a bureaucratic process of sorts.

If the intention was to prevent a crime, then a stern warning before the start of the event should have sufficed to cause the contingent to stand down, especially with the threat of arrest looming. What has happened instead is the sensational spectacle of the police escorting the PPS participants in their parade gear to their detention.

Demonstrators in illegal assemblies have been given more leeway to disperse than what has happened to this group, out on a Sunday morning among friends in a patriotic celebration.

If this sudden interest in the PPS was precipitated by the assault on a strident critic of the DAP, then by all means throw the book at the perpetrators of that dastardly assault. If there are some bad elements in the organisation, then weed them out. The mass arrest certainly looks overdone.

Malaysians have a penchant to disagree on just about anything. However the logic of this episode must be seen clearly for what it is. It is misdirected and, contrary to what the Penang police chief has said, appears very much politically motivated.

With such a vague directive prohibiting the PPS from participation in “any activities”, a game of football among PPS members might also be interpreted as defiant.

There may or may not have been a breach of the law on paper, but nobody witnessed any crime being committed at the parade ground on Merdeka Day, except for the stifling of civil liberties and the curtailment of the freedom to associate freely. If there was no security threat, as there clearly was not, then it might even be argued that a constitutional right of those arrested was denied.

Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s reformist reputation, if indeed he deserved it, has simply evaporated away. There is no mistaking the urgency in the mounting sedition prosecutions brought against opposition figures, as though Najib were trying to prove his own hardline credentials in the face of scathing criticism from former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad.

If Najib’s transformation programmes were intended to lead us into the light, then this spate of persecutions must surely be dragging us right back into the cave.

When push comes to shove, the Umno led government’s reliance on executive prerogatives proves a hard habit to break. Though Najib tries to forge a new path for himself and the nation, he is reminded by Mahathir that the core of his support is from people entrenched in the past. Little else would explain this sudden turnaround in his approach.