KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 23 — The police have now set up a special unit to carry out sedition investigations, PKR lawmaker Rafizi Ramli said today, signalling a possible rise in cases.
The Pandan MP said he found out about the new special unit after he was questioned for sedition at police headquarters in Bukit Aman here.
“But surprisingly and more interestingly to me was there is a newly-established investigation called D5,” he told reporters after he was called up for questioning by the Classified Crimes Investigation Unit over a recent remark related to the Federal Court decision that sent Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to jail for sodomy.
“That special unit is to investigate cases related to Sedition Act. I think we can expect more to come,” he added.
Rafizi today also criticised the police for apparently prioritising sedition investigations instead of pursuing criminals.
“I’m sure the special unit has better things to do than to read my tweets,” he said, referring to police monitoring social media such as Twitter to investigate possible seditious remarks.
“If you (police) really want to investigate tweets and god knows what else, better ban Twitter and Facebook to be more economical. There are more serious, real crimes.”
Following the Federal Court’s decision to jail Anwar on February 10, the Inspector-General of Police ordered sedition investigations against DAP’s Nga Kor Ming, PKR secretary-general Rafizi and cartoonist Zulkifli Anwar Ulhaque or “Zunar” as he is popularly known. Zunar was arrested the same day.
Sedition probes were also started against Jingga 13 chief and PKR member Fariz Musa, Penang state executive councillor Dr Afif Bahardin, and Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) secretary-general S. Arutchelvan who was arrested on Thursday.
