KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 5 — Bukit Aman insisted today the police do not practise “selective investigations” when dealing with reports of racial and religious hatred speech as alleged, saying some cases took longer to complete.
The police force was forced to issue the statement after Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail passed on answering allegations the authorities were soft on non-Muslims who insulted Islam and Muslims.
“The police has never been selective in its investigation by prioritising any race or religion,” Deputy Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Mohd Bakri Mohd Zinin said in a statement on the police’s Facebook page.
“However, it must be clarified that the duration to complete an investigation paper differs, and is dependent on many factors, especially information that could have been gathered.”
The police explained that several steps need to be taken to prosecute “irresponsible” statements made through social media, including identifying the real owner of an account first.
Some cases however involved foreign-based account, over which the police has no jurisdiction, said Bakri.
The police also take extra time for forensic investigations involving a different agency, should the suspect claims that his account was hacked by a third party, he said.
“PDRM urges everyone to not play this issue until it stokes racial and religious sentiments which could disturb racial harmony and public order,” said Bakri, using the Malay initials for the police.
He stressed the police is committed in its investigations.
Abdul Gani has refused to address allegations accusing the authorities of allowing the non-Muslims to get away with racial and religious slurs, saying the matter should be referred to the police instead.
Umno Youth and some Malay-Muslim groups have accused the authorities of being slow to punish non-Muslims who insult Islam, compared to the purportedly swift action taken against Malays.
Another Malay-language paper Utusan Malaysia had claimed on Sunday that non-Muslims were becoming more blatant in insulting Islam because of the authorities’ alleged bias.
But when asked to respond to the allegations, the police insisted yesterday that the force is colour-blind and does not practise selective prosecution.
Bukit Aman corporate communications officer ACP Datin Asmawati Ahmad told Malay Mail Online that swift action was taken against road bully Siti Fairrah Ashykin Kamaruddin, widely known as Kiki, and against Ustaz Shahul Hamid, who had allegedly insulted Hinduism, because they were positively identified in videos circulated online.
