|  A Kedah PKR strongman has expressed shock that PM Najib appears to have endorsed the campaign to politically blackmail his opponent.
A Kedah PKR strongman has expressed shock that Prime Minister Najib Razak appears to have endorsed the campaign to politically blackmail his opponent.
NONEThe party's state committee member said that Najib, as PM, should stay far and above gutter politics when a sex video allegedly linked to an opposition leader become public knowledge on Monday.
Or else, Najib, who is also BN and Umno chief, was not fit to helm the country, added PKR's state committee member Gooi Hsiao Leung.
"Instead, it is shocking that he is calling for a thorough police investigation, with the help of experts in the field of video editing to determine the authenticity of the sex video," he said.
"Najib has failed in his responsibility as PM of the country to outrightly condemn the actions of the Datuk T trio," added Gooi, a lawyer by profession.
"He should demand that the police take immediate action against the criminal acts of the trio for screening pornographic video to the media and having committed political blackmail," he added.
Umno on character assassination binge
Gooi, who stood as a candidate for the Alor Setar parliamentary seat in the last general election, was responding to Najib's statement last night that the main issue was whether the video was genuine or not.
The police should be allowed to do a rapid and professional job to verify whether the video was doctored or not, he was reported as saying.
Najib with his facebook gathering in Kuching, showing fingerNajib had also attempted to distance Umno from the video depicting Opposition Leader and PKR supremo Anwar Ibrahim allegedly having sex with a prostitute.
However, Gooi said by endorsing dirty politics, Najib shows that Umno is desperate to character assassinate Anwar, who is Permatang Pauh MP, in whatever way they can.
This clearly shows that Umno has no confidence in facing Anwar's challenge for Putrajaya, he added.
"Umno is wallowing in a campaign to destroy Anwar's reputation, even though no crime has been alleged to have been committed by Anwar," he said.
"Umno behaves as though they are already going to lose the next general election," he added.
Gerakan joins in by launching broadside
Meanwhile, a Penang Gerakan leader has taken de facto law minister Nazri Abdul Aziz to task for implying that the trio who exposed the video needed to be protected.
NONEThe party's human rights bureau chief Baljit Singh was upset that Nazri had urged the public "not to kill the messenger".
By saying so, Nazri appears to be a "defective", not de facto, law minister, charged Baljit.
"The video should have been taken to the police and not shown to the media.
"When they show it like this, it seems as if it is 'directly or indirectly' aligned to a political party," said the lawyer.
He was responding to Nazri, who recently defended the trio by urging the public not to raise issues that are not central to the one at hand.
Law suffering from myopic vision
However, two of the trio - honorary consul general of Thailand in Malaysia Shazryl Eskay Abdullah and former Malacca chief minister Rahim Thamby Chik - are highly controversial individuals linked to Umno.
Baljit expressed sadness that the country has gone down to gutter politics where the police appear to be practising double standards in their handling of the recent case.
He questioned if the trio had obtained police permit to screen the video and if police had acted on the former if they had failed to do so.
"Others need to apply for police permits for such things, for example, even to organise a forum on the Interlok issue, Hindraf was told to get permits. When they did not, they were arrested," he added.
He also criticised those who called for a royal commission of inquiry (RCI) to determine the authenticity of the video.
He said the government did not find it necessary to call a RCI when a Malaysian citizen and DAP political aide - Teoh Beng Hock - died while in the custody of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission.
"And now they want a RCI to investigate two adults having sex?" he asked. Media confusion over sex-tape 'arrests'
Saturday, March 26 @ 07:58:20 CDT | While the cops have finally swooped into action over the sex-tape scandal, there is still much confusion over the so-called arrests.
While the police have finally swooped into action over the sex-tape scandal allegedly involving a top opposition leader, there is still much confusion over whether anyone had been arrested in connection with the case.
rahim thamby chik at bukit aman 240311 02On Thursday night, former Malacca chief minister Rahim Thamby Chik (left) and businessman Shazryl Eskay Abdullah were asked to give their statement to the police.They were at the federal police headquarters in Bukit Aman for five hours.
This was followed by Perkasa treasurer Shuib Lazim - the third member of the 'Datuk T' team which had admitted that they were the ones behind the screening of the sex video.
Shuib was brought to Bukit Aman from Sungai Petani in Kedah for his statement to be taken yesterday.
The trio was investigated under section 292 of the Penal Code after the video, purportedly showing a prominent politician having sex with a prostitute, were screened to journalists at the Carcosa Seri Negara hotel in Kuala Lumpur on Monday.
However, The Star reported yesterday afternoon on its website that two men had been arrested in connection with the sex video before updating it an hour later, saying that the two were believed to be Rahim and Shazryl Eskay.
It also reported that the duo were then freed on police bail.
The English daily later corrected the report on its website that not two but three men had been nabbed, quoting Royal Malaysia Police secretary Deputy Commissioner Ghazali Md Amin.
sin chew sex tape datuk t arrestedChinese daily Sin Chew followed suit with its front-page report today, saying that three people had been arrested.
However, the print version of The Star today said that only two were arrested,adding that they were not Rahim and Shazryl Eskay.
The names of the mystery duo were, however. not mentioned.
Doubts over arrests
On their part, Rahim and Shazryl Eskay, vehemently denied that they had been arrested. They told Malaysiakini that they were not made to sign any other document apart from their witness statements on Thursday night.
Both were shocked by the reports of their arrests. They claimed that there was no mention of the word arrest by the police after their statements were taken two days ago.
Meanwhile, Inspector-general of police Ismail Omar appeared to have laughed off reports that that the two had been arrested.
"Yesterday, we called two of them for their statements to be recorded.... if we had arrested them without enough evidence, people will be laughing at the police," he was reported to have said after attending the 204th police day celebration at the Police Training Centre in Kuala Lumpur yesterday evening.
Up till press time, it is still uncertain if in deed there had been any arrest.
Anwar decries double standards
At a ceramah in Taman Melawati attended by 1,500 supporters, Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim decried police double standards on the matter.
"The Star said there were arrests. It's a lie. What arrests? They were brought in for a while, and then released.
"You know why? Because they are Umno's running dogs. They can slander others, but not arrested. The others, they go to jail."
Minutes later, Anwar's speech was cut short by a team of police officers who barged into the venue, demanding that the opposition leader leave the podium. | | |
|
|
|
Comments