KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 28 — Police were “overreacting” when they arrested a Facebook user at midnight on Thursday and remanded him for three days over a post labelling its officers as “‘monkey’ looking for extra income”, said lawyers critical of the move.
Human rights lawyer Andrew Khoo said the move appeared designed to intimidate, pointing out there was neither an urgency nor risk that the evidence would “disappear” to justify the midnight swoop carried out by the Malacca police.
“It would appear that the intention is to arrest him and place him behind bars and to perhaps intimidate him and make an example of him and to make sure everyone is duly intimidated.
“I think the police was being overzealous and possibly with the idea of sending a message to the Malaysian public and we actually can recall the IGP commenting that ‘if you insult the police, we will come after you’,” Khoo told Malay Mail Online when contacted yesterday.
Two other civil liberties lawyers — New Sin Yew and Eric Paulsen — described the Malacca police’s late-night arrest of the 32-year-old car salesman as abusive.
“Why was there a need to go to his house at midnight and obtain further three days for such a minor matter? It’s a very clear case of gross abuse of power,” said Paulsen.
New also said the Thursday midnight arrest over the Facebook post amounted to “bullying” and harassment. “The police should stop doing this. It’s not going to help their image, it’s only going to make it worse”.
Both New and Paulsen said the police should address any negative perception by the public and improve the police force’s image, instead of going after critics.
“The police should not be policing what the public is saying about them. If you start policing what the public is saying, you create a serious chilling effect on the public’s freedom of expression,” New suggested, adding that the Facebook user’s right to freedom of expression has been violated.
Paulsen said the police force’s “authority and dignity” does not come from “fear but from public confidence and these would depend on their own conduct and integrity.”
On Friday, Malacca police confirmed that the Facebook user who had made the “monkey” remark was being probed for criminal defamation under Section 500 of the Penal Code, which is punishable by a jail term of up to two years or a fine or both.
New said Section 500 is an “archaic law” that violates the constitutional right to freedom of speech.
Both Khoo and Paulsen suggested that the two officers shown in the offending Facebook post should sue in the civil courts, rather than for the police to resort to criminal defamation.
The case is the latest in which police have gone after individuals over insults made in person or over the Internet.
On September 15, a Twitter user was charged under the Penal Code for “deliberately humiliating and provoking” Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar by likening him to Nazi military commander Heinrich Himmler.
Last month, a Penang resident was jailed a week for scribbling an expletive on a traffic summons issued to him by a police officer.
