Lawyers for Liberty executive director Eric Paulsen says Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar is allowing Umno cybertroopers to dictate on whom he should clamp down. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, February 13, 2015.
There is a growing concern over Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar's use of Twitter to warn critics, with the Lawyers for Liberty today joining the chorus and telling the IGP to discard his "abhorrent attitude towards civil liberties".
This follows yesterday's report that Khalid, who was “trigger happy” on Twitter, has attracted the attention of international newspaper, The New York Times.
In a statement today, LFL executive director Eric Paulsen said the group was extremely concerned with Khalid's self-appointed role as the "Twitter police".
He said Khalid has been trolling on the social media site, issuing warnings "on a whim" regarding what could or could not be published and coming down hard on opposition and dissidents.
He also noted that it was shocking that the "Twitter policing" was often done at the behest of pro-Umno cybertroopers and trolls, who urge him to take action on particular tweets.
"Needless to say, it is unbecoming for the IGP to be seemingly taking instructions from pro-Umno cybertroopers and trolls when he should be neutral when dealing with them whose work is obviously politically motivated and done in bad faith," he said.
Paulsen said as the top police officer, Khalid should display more professionalism and care on Twitter and not to abuse his powers.
"We are highly doubtful that his methods are in compliance with PDRM’s social media policies and standard operating procedure.
"The IGP should discard his abhorrent attitude towards civil liberties and respect the people’s right to legitimate dissent and challenge the government of the day and its apparatus."
He told Khalid and the police force to go back to basics – to be a professional, impartial and competent police force in maintaining law and order, preventing and detecting real crimes and apprehending real criminals rather than be concerned with policing social media or politically motivated matters.
Paulsen also noted that while others were subjected to police action, pro-Umno cybertroopers and trolls had a free reign to publish anything, including hate speech and incitement to violence without fear of criminal investigation from the police or the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC).
He said surely there was "a case of double standards and selective prosecution".
Last month, Paulsen was arrested by the police for allegedly accusing Jakim of spreading extremism through Friday sermons.
Paulsen had tweeted on January 9: “Jakim is promoting extremism every Friday. Govt needs to address that if serious about extremism in Malaysia.”
Khalid, who uses the handle @KBAB51 on Twitter, warned of action against the activist. Paulsen was later picked up and charged last Thursday with sedition.
Earlier this week, Khalid also announced sedition probes into several Pakatan Rakyat leaders and others, who had slammed the government and judiciary over Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's conviction.
Among those under investigation are PKR secretary-general Rafizi Ramli and DAP's Taiping MP Nga Kor Ming for their tweets on the matter.
Khalid's announcement followed the arrest of satire cartoonist Zulkiflee Anwar Ulhaque, also known as Zunar, who was detained on Tuesday night for tweeting a comment critical of the judiciary over the Anwar verdict.
Zunar was released today.
Yesterday, NYT said that Putrajaya had “for decades has been accused of using draconian and archaic laws to sideline and intimidate its critics.”
But, it said, the latest cases come with a modern twist: Khalid using his Twitter account to issue warnings to government critics and to order his subordinates to track and investigate dissenting voices.
The NYT said police’s use of the colonial-era Sedition Act “have curbed this new frontier of free speech (which the Internet age made possible) and have expanded the reach of a paternalistic government”.
Phil Robertson, the Asia deputy director of Human Rights Watch, said Khalid’s warning had made Malaysians think twice before posting anything.
“In Malaysia’s Twittersphere, the I.G.P. is like a shark in open water – inspiring fear whenever he comments,” Robertson was quoted as saying.
Lawyer and human rights activist Datuk Ambiga Sreenavasan was concerned with the IGP's social media policing activities, saying that police crackdown on several Twitter postings questioning Anwar’s sodomy conviction on Tuesday was proof that the government was nervous.
“They feel they need to defend this judgement by stopping people from speaking."
- TMI
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