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Dr Subra breaks BN ranks over EO6

Free Malaysia Today - July 27, 2011

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Teoh El Sen, Petaling Jaya – Human Resources Minister Dr S Subramaniam has voiced concern over the continued detention without trial of six Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) members, stopping short of calling for their release.

In a media statement put out today, he urged the Inspector-General of Police and the Home Ministry to "review" their detention under the Emergency Ordinance (EO) and to charge them in court "as quickly as possible" if they had indeed committed chargeable offences.

The statement makes Subramaniam, who is MIC's deputy president, the second prominent Barisan Nasional figure to break ranks over the detention of the six. Last week, Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin called the arrests "misguided" and said he would convey his view to Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak.

"The IGP and Home Ministry should review the continual arrest of Dr (Michael) Jeyakumar and five others under the Emergency Ordinance," Subramaniam said.

"To date the police have not shown any convincing evidence that they were involved in an armed struggle to overthrow the government. There are also confusing signals that they were arrested because of their involvement in Bersih. They were, however, arrested much earlier than the Bersih event. Moreover many others involved in Bersih have not been arrested and those arrested have been released."

Jeyakumar, who is the MP for Sungai Siput, and PSM deputy president M Sarasvathy, central committee members Choo Chon Kai and M Sukumaran, Youth chief R Saratbabu and Sungai Siput branch secretary A Letchumanan were arrested in Kepala Batas on June 26 while distributing leaflets calling on the public to support Bersih's demands for free and fair elections.

They were arrested on suspicion of attempting to wage war against the King. Their remand order expired on July 2, but they were re-arrested under the EO and have since been detained and interrogated at different police stations.

Subramaniam said the government should rethink how it dealt with Bersih and its July 9 rally. "This event has caused a lot of uneasiness and disquiet among the Malaysian public and it is best that we handle it wisely."

The arrest and detention of the six were part of a widely condemned clampdown in the build-up to the Bersih 2.0 rally, which itself resulted in the arrest of 1,600, most of whom have been freed.

The six are accused of being key figures in the planning for the rally and attempting to revive communism. The apparent evidence for the latter charge was their alleged possession of T-shirts bearing the likenesses of communist leaders.