Guan Eng: Waste of resources to investigate MPs for Dataran Merdeka gathering

GEORGE TOWN, Aug 11 ― Bagan MP Lim Guan Eng today said the police are wasting their time and resources to investigate MPs over the August 2 gathering by Opposition MPs at Dataran Merdeka in Kuala Lumpur.

The former finance minister was summoned to give his statement at 1pm at the Northeast district police headquarters here.

“The police should be protecting the people instead of wasting their time on this,” he told reporters when he arrived at the police station here.

He said MPs have the right to go to Parliament as they have offices there.

He said it doesn’t make sense that the MPs were blocked from entering Parliament on that day and yet they were told they could enter it the next day.

He said the MPs did not do anything wrong and that it was the police who were wrong in blocking them from entering Parliament.

He said a motion was approved in Parliament last year ordering the police to allow all MPs access to Parliament and that the order was still in effect.

“Therefore action should be taken against the police for stopping MPs from doing our jobs and for defying that order,” he said.

Lim, who was accompanied by lawyer and Jelutong MP RSN Rayer, left the police station after his statement was recorded.

Several other Opposition lawmakers, including Langkawi MP and Parti Pejuang Tanahair chairman Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and PKR president and Port Dickson MP Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, have been called in to have their statement recorded over the gathering.

Yesterday, Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow and Rayer also had their statements recorded.

It is understood that more than 200 police reports have been lodged against the Opposition MPs for allegedly violating the Covid-19 SOPs of the National Recovery Plan.

The police are investigating the case under Section 21A of the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act 1988, Section 269 of the Penal Code and Section 9 (5) of the Peaceful Assembly Act 2012.