PAS blasts Barisan hypocrisy - Selangor Times

Published: Fri, 13 Jul 2012  
SHAH ALAM:  PAS Selangor has slammed the arrest of 31 Cameron Highlands protesters who were picked up outside the Pahang Menteri Besar’s office on Tuesday.

Shah Alam member of Parliament Khalid Samad said the arrest only goes to expose the hypocrisy of Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s  1Malaysia slogan.

“All the while they talk about transformation, people first, performance now, and all those slogans, yet they arrest people for protesting in the prime minister’s own state,” he said.

Speaking at a press conference at the state assembly, the Selangor PAS deputy commissioner alleged that the group was promised that the Pahang menteri besar would meet them to solve a land grab issue.

The group included six children along with farmers who have not been re-issued temporary occupational licences (TOL) although they have been working on the land for 40 years and stalls operators whose premises may be demolished.

“Not only were they denied their right to see the menteri besar, they were also unjustly arrested and are being charged for illegal assembly. What assembly? They only wanted to see the menteri besar.

“They wanted the menteri besar to keep his promise, in merely three months the promise was broken, and what is their latest slogan? Promises kept. It’s not like they want to overthrow the government either,” Khalid said.

The protesters are now being treated as common criminals and are being charged under the new Peaceful Assembly Act 2012.

He ridiculed the arrests and compared them to various protests that were held outside the Selangor State Secretariat building in Shah Alam.

“Look at the protests outside the SUK, no matter how vulgar they were, no matter how noisy they were, no matter what they criticised about the state government, we never arrest them,” he said.

Khalid said Putrajaya is being very irresponsible and the country is now in a very sad state of affairs.

 

Selangor Times