SHAH ALAM, 7 Dec: The increasing prevalence of political thugs emerging in Malaysia is because the authorities are not taking strict action against Umno-BN supporters who have been violating the limitations of the law.
PAS Legal Adviser, Hanipa Maidin said that there have been many complaints that have been reported to the Police by Pakatan Rakyat (PR) regarding incidents of alleged political bullying by supporters of Umno-BN.
However, there has been no action taken by the Police regarding the complaints. On the other hand, swift and strict action is taken by the Police against supporters of PR.
Hanipa was referring to the incident where a youth recorded the incident of paint being splashed at a bus owned by PKR (People’s Justice Party) during their ‘People’s Independence Tour’ (Jelajah Merdeka Rakyat) in Malacca.
Police actions were similar to the aforementioned regarding the incident of ‘butt exercises’ that took place in front of Bersih Co-Chairperson, Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan’s house.
Instead action was taken against participants of the Bersih Rally in Kuala Lumpur to a point that participants were chased down and arrested by the Police.
In the same way, several youths were hunted down and were forced to publicly apologise for stepping on a photo of the Prime Minister, Satuk seri mohd Najib Razak, at a rally in August.
Hanipa said that politics thuggery is a condition where involved persons are not ready to receive the diversity of ideas and finally would turn to physical fighting.
“Politics is really about the exchange of ideas and freedom where a platform is given to voice out opinions.
“It is when certain ideas are rejected by society, the parties involved turn to thuggery.
“When their ideas cannot be accepted and is rejected by society, (they are) therefore they are unhappy with the situation and are envious of the ideas that have been presented by a certain party, thus it is then that political thuggery emerges,” he said.
He said this at the 16th Daily Herald Discourse (Wacana Sinar Harian kali ke-16), highlighting the topic “Political Thug, Where is Our Honour”.
About 500 attendees were present at the discourse which was held at the Karangkraf Media Group Complex Auditorium at Section 15, here.
Also making an appearance at the discourse was the President of the Integrity Institute of Malaysia, Datuk Dr Mohd Tap Salleh, Hulu Selangor MP, P.Kamalanathan and former Inspector General of Police, Tan Sri Musa Hassan.