The police has made itself a laughing stock not only in Malaysia but in the world when it arrested Ezam based on the Mingguan Malaysia front-page report on Sunday that the Keadilan Youth leader had said that he was launching street demonstrations every day to topple the government, without first investigating the veracity of the report.
The police action becomes unprofessional, politically-motivated and vindictive when Ezam was arrested despite his public denial that he had made the statement as reported by Mingguan Malaysia.
Ezam’s arrest has also highlighted the double standards of the police in their arbitrary arrest of Barisan Alternative leaders when there was no basis for any police action, while refusing to "touch" any Barisan Nasional leaders although ample proofs for police action had been furnished by Barisan Alternative leaders in their police reports.
The handcuffing of Ezam when he is produced in court is another reminder of police double-standards, as the former Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Rahim Noor, was never handcuffed and even now has not served a second in jail or police lock-up despite his self-confessed crime of assaulting a hand-cuffed and blind-folded Anwar Ibrahim to an inch of his life some 30 months ago.
(10/3/2001)