ISKANDAR Puteri MP Lim Kit Siang has criticised the police for launching an investigation into Kulai MP Teo Nie Ching’s social media posting from April 2017.
According to the DAP lawmaker, the police should be focusing on combating crime rather than being a political tool to intimidate or harass the public for speaking their mind.
“Inspector-general of police (IGP) Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani should explain why the police is probing Teo over a four-year social media post in April 2017 (and) whether this is a reflection of police inefficiency or abuse of power under Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s government,” Lim said.
“Hasn’t the police better things to do?”
It was reported yesterday (Jan 12) that the police are investigating Teo over a social media post she had shared back in April 2017.
When contacted by online news portal Malaysiakini, the Opposition lawmaker said the post was originally by activist-artist Fahmi Reza and she had shared it on her official Facebook along with the caption “pertahankan kebebasan berekspresi, kebebasan bersatire” (defend the freedom to express, freedom to be satirical).
The investigation is being conducted under Section 504 of the Penal Code (intentional insult with intent to provoke a breach of the peace) as well as Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 (improper use of network facilities or network service, etc).
A waste of precious police time
Former Aliran president P Ramakrishnan had similarly called for the police to stop harassing Teo, adding that there were no justifiable grounds to “waste precious police time on this meaningless investigation”.
Calling it “unbelievable” that the police are taking action more than four years later, Ramakrishnan further noted that Teo’s posting was about freedom of expression – a universal inalienable human right that must be upheld rather than trampled upon.
“[Teo] ought to be congratulated that she defended the freedom of expression, as to be expected of any decent human being,” he remarked.
Rather than going after Teo, Ramakrishnan urged the police to turn their focus to outstanding cases that were still waiting to be solved.
“What happened to Pastor Raymond Koh, alongside Ruth Sitepu and her husband Joshua Hilmy who have been missing since 2017?” he asked.
“Who killed political aide Teoh Beng Hock [whose] 13-year case is [that] of tragic inaction, and what happened to M. Indira Ghandi’s daughter?
“Likewise, there are many unsolved cases challenging the expertise of the police force for resolution. This is where their attention should be directed to.
“The Malaysian public calls upon the police to desist from hounding and harassing Teo and appeals to them to put their time to good use pursuing unresolved crimes instead of wasting their time on unproductive efforts,” Ramakrishnan concluded. – Jan 13, 2022
