PUTRAJAYA – Pakatan Harapan (PH) and PKR have stuck to their principles, said Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil amid criticism over their supposed silence on the sedition probe into DAP’s Tony Pua.
“I take note of (N. Surendran) views. In PKR and PH, we stick to our principles. At the same time, we have party discipline on the matter… which is important,” he told a press conference at his ministry here, after the weekly cabinet meeting today.
Fahmi was responding to comments by former PKR vice-president N. Surendran, who said the party and coalition kept mum despite their stance against the Sedition Act when they were the opposition.
In a social media post, Surendran had claimed the party and coalition’s silence when Pua was investigated was “shameful”, and his former party mates had “sunk low”.
He added that PH pledged to repeal the Sedition Act in its manifesto for the 2022 general election.
DAP’s Ong Kian Ming also defended Pua, urging PH leaders not to forget his contributions in revealing the massive 1Malaysia Development Bhd financial scandal, and how it implicated then prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.
Pua, who is a former Damansara MP, was summoned by Bukit Aman on Monday, after being instructed by police to present himself as part of an investigation into his allegedly seditious social media posts about Najib’s sentence reduction.
A day before, Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Razarudin Husain confirmed that Pua was being investigated under Section 4(1) of the Sedition Act 1948, and for misuse of network facilities under Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998.
Several of Pua’s posts include: “Trust me. It’s not a scam”, “oh wow, after all these years, NAJIB/UMNO cybertrooper still love me”, “I beg your pardon?”, “can someone send me to jail for 1 year and in exchange, pay me RM50 mil?”, “Pretty please?”, and “King Klep pardoned!!”
The posts sparked Umno’s ire, to the point that its youth wing lodged police reports over the matter. – February 7, 2024