Press Statement by the DAP Secretary-General and Member of Parliament for Bagan Lim Guan Eng in Komtar, George Town on 21 March 2017
DAP wishes to reprimand the police for practicing double standards and arbitrarily exercising their powers in seeking a 4-day remand order for Hew Kuan Yau, also known as ‘Superman’ to facilitate investigations for allegedly insulting the Prime Minister and his wife.
Even though we may not agree with what he has written, it should not justify the 4-day remand order. Such an offence under the Communication and Multimedia Act 1998 for insulting the Prime Minister and his wife cannot be so severe until he has to be remanded 4 days as compared to other offences such as financial scandals which have caused great financial loss to the country and harm to the people such as 1MDB, RM52 Billion scandal and the USD1 Billion donation scandal.
DAP urges the police to exercise their power proportionately, and not excessively. If the 4- day remand order was imposed on Jho Low as a suspect to facilitate investigations into the 1MDB scandal, this will be considered appropriate but certainly not for an offence which is deemed rude and can be immediately charged in Court without needing to be detained overnight.
The imposition of a 4-day remand order would be seen as a form of pre-emptive punishment towards Hew when investigation towards his 1 line post on Facebook can be wrapped up in less than a day. While Hew has said that he is prepared to face any punishment over his 1 liner post on Facebook, such punishment if any, should be meted out by the Court and certainly not by the police through this remand order.
DAP sympathises with Hew for this excessive punishment and expresses concern over his health condition following his hunger strike protest. DAP urges the police to finish investigations against Hew quickly so that he can be released before the remand order expires on Friday.
LIM GUAN ENG
—–Mandarin Version —
民主行动党秘书长兼峇眼区国会议员林冠英于2017年3月21日在乔治市发表声明：
民主行动党谴责警方双重标准、独断横行寻求延长扣留“超人”丘光耀长达四天，以协助调查他被指侮辱首相及首相夫人的事件。
就算我们不同意他所写的，但也不代表4天的扣押期是合理的。在1998年通讯及多媒体法令底下，与造成国家及人民损失的金融丑闻那些罪名相比，如：一马公司丑闻、520万令吉丑闻及10亿令吉捐款丑闻，侮辱首相及首相夫人的罪名不至于这么严重，以至于他需要被扣留4天。
行动党促请警方适当地行使权力，而不是过度行使权力。如果他们将刘特佐以嫌犯之名扣押四天，以调查一马公司丑闻，这将是合适的，但是，仅仅犯下“无礼”之罪，绝不需要如此大费周章，法庭可在不需要过夜扣留的情况下马上做出判决。
针对他的面子书一句贴文的调查工作，明明可以在一天内总结，当局的四天扣留令将被视为一种“杀鸡儆猴”式的惩罚。当丘光耀说他已经准备好面对“一句贴文”的处罚，但是有关惩罚必须由法庭来裁决，而不是由警方独断地申请扣押令。
行动党同情丘光耀所遭受到的过度处罚，并因他发起绝食而对他的健康状况表示关注。行动 党促请警方尽快结束调查工作、在扣押期满之前（即星期五之前）释放丘光耀。
林冠英