KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 4 — The police enforces the law equally and without racial or religious considerations, the force has said amid claims of preferential treatment for non-Muslim offenders.
When contacted by the Malay Mail Online, Bukit Aman corporate communications officer ACP Datin Asmawati Ahmad explained that each investigation was unique and should not be used as a benchmark against others.
“Police are colour-blind and we are not racially biased. We are law enforcement officers and we do as the law dictates. We do not subscribe to selective investigation or selective prosecution.
“Investigation differs from case to case and the time limit depends on available facts of case as well as technical issues, which warrant us to refer matters to other government agencies,” the assistant chief of the Inspector-General of Police’s secretariat said yesterday.
Asmawati described attempts to depict the police as biased by citing the police’s swift action in two recent cases in comparison to cases involving insults against Islam and Malays on Facebook as “morally wrong”.
In the case of road user Siti Fairrah Ashykin Kamaruddin, widely known as Kiki, the Malay woman was filmed verbally abusing an elderly Chinese man and hitting his car with a steering lock in Kuantan on July 14.
Siti Fairrah was investigated by police on July 17, before she was charged on July 22 and fined RM5,000 and sentenced to 240 hours of community service over the road rage incident.
Another case involved Ustaz Shahul Hamid, whose alleged slurs against Hindus was disseminated in an online video, with Penang police recording his statement a day after a July 30 protest against the PAS preacher.
Asmawati pointed out that both Kiki and Shahul were “positively identified” in videos circulated online and had publicly apologised, adding that the former also stepped forward and voluntarily surrendered to the police.
These two cases differed from cases where “sensitive issues” are posted on social media such as Facebook, Asmawati said when explaining that the police may face “certain constraints” in their probe.
“We need to verify the owner of the Facebook account and when the owner says that his or her account was hacked, the police needs to verify if that’s the truth,” she said.
Some instances involve users that are abroad, which may hamper investigations, she added.
Yesterday, Utusan Malaysia claimed that non-Muslims are becoming more blatant in insulting Islam, blaming it on alleged selective action by authorities whom it said were hesitant or slow to punish them for such activities compared to action against Malays.
Utusan cited Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin, who recently pointed to Kiki’s case when saying a Chinese Facebook user named Kelvin Yip should also be charged for his remarks allegedly belittling Muslims.
Yip, who has since apologised and deleted both the offending post and account, had used derogatory terms when complaining that mosques in his area were broadcasting morning prayers during Hari Raya at high volumes.
The Umno-owned paper also expressed “concern” that the alleged prejudice may cause extremists or militants to respond with violence.
On Saturday, the police and local internet regulator Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) said they are probing Yip’s case.
The Federal Territories Umno Youth chief Mohd Razlan Muhammad Raffi had last Friday accused the authorities of acting selectively by comparing Kiki’s case and Shahul’s case to Yip’s case.
Asmawati did not single out any group or individual when responding to the accusations of selective action against the police.
She also said that attempts to politicise issues in a bid to whip up racial and religious sentiments under the guise of championing one’s own race and religion must stop.
