PKR leader, Anwar Ibrahim is arrested outside his house in Bukit Segambut, Kuala Lumpur at 12.55pm today upon returning from being questioned by the Anti Corruption Agency (ACA) at the ACA headquarters. This happened more than an hour before the 2pm deadline set by the police for him to report to the Kuala Lumpur police headquarters. It is reported that he is currently under arrest, but no force or handcuffs were used.
At the time of this writing, he is believed to be still being questioned by the police.
Meanwhile, Federal CID director Bakri Zinin explained why the arrest was made. He claimed that Anwar was supposed to head to the police headquarters after leaving the ACA.
“However, we were informed that after he left the ACA headquarters in Putrajaya, he had changed his route and was heading back to his house in (Bukit) Segambut.”
“He was arrested as we had reason to believe he was not going to show up. We wish to point out that Anwar had initially agreed to meet us on Monday but failed to keep his appointment.”
However, such an explanation would not be appropriate, given that he has agreed to report to the police headquarters at 2pm. According to Anwar’s daughter, Nurul Izzah, who is the MP for Lembah Pantai, her father made a quick stopover at his house to have lunch before proceeding to the police headquarters.
Hence, the action of the police in arresting Anwar before the 2pm deadline is unacceptable.
Several Pakatan Rakyat leaders condemned the arrest of Anwar, as published in this report in Malaysiakini. Quoted below are statements by some of them:
Lim Guan Eng (Penang Chief Minister, MP for Bagan, DAP Sec-Gen)
The arrest of Anwar Ibrahim is high-handed and harsh action, and an ugly display of power against a popular opposition leader in the country.
Since Anwar had shown his willingness to cooperate fully with the investigation on the sodomy allegation against him. The police action was against the rule of law.
DAP demands the immediate release of Anwar. All Malaysians want to see the rule of law in action.
Tian Chua (MP for Batu, PKR Information Chief)
This is ridiculous. It’s unnecessarily provocative. It shows that we are a country that abuses the law. The arrest in my view is to instill fear in the public. In the Barisan Nasional’s eyes, it has become increasingly inconvenient that the people are being more courageous and assertive of their rights. They need to push (that) back in. It could be a preclude to a well-designed crackdown on the people’s movement.
William Leong (MP for Selayang, PKR Treasurer)
It’s really mind-boggling why so much precautions and actions have been taken against one man… Is the Barisan Nasional so afraid of one man?
PKR has always been following the law, the principles, justice. The people have a right to assemble, the people have a right to freedom of expression, and the people and members of PKR have a right to show concern for their leaders.
There’s no need for any one organisation to do it. I’m sure that once news of this comes out, the people will come out (spontaneously) and show their concern for the safety of their leader Anwar Ibrahim. We are asking the people to stay calm because we do not want to cause any disorder or provide any excuse for the government to crack down.
Demonstrations cannot be ruled out, but if there is one, it will be organised and done in an orderly manner.
Karpal Singh (MP for Bukit Gelugor, DAP National Chairman)
It was wrong to detain him on the road since he already agreed to show up for an appointment. Anwar should be freed on police bail after his statement is recorded.
Dr Syed Husin Ali (PKR Deputy President)
The way he was arrested was reminiscent of the forces sent to arrest him at his home in September 1998.
This event is deeply disturbing and indicated that this entire episode is a repeat of actions taken against Anwar in 1998.
Over the last few weeks, the government-owned media vilified and demonised him. His staff has been harassed. We see a conspiracy being hedged to thwart the political change that is imminent in Malaysia.
Sallehuddin Hashim (PKR Sec-Gen)
Our concern is that our leader is taken away without being given a chance. This we believe smells of police persecution. It is strange that they did this when Anwar had already informed them of coming to police headquarters.
If anything happens within the next few days that smells of civil unrest we can assure it is not coming from this party.
Kamaruddin Jaffar (PAS Sec-Gen)
We protest over the way he was detained, but we hope that with the two lawyers there, the process of law will be respected and that all his rights as a citizen of the country will be respected and no abuse of power of any sort is done towards him.
PAS will treat anybody innocent until the court of law decides otherwise. We will defend his rights and demand that he be treated respectfully as a citizen of Malaysia. No untoward treatment, no unnecessary limitations on his freedom as a rakyat and as a recognised leader in Pakatan Rakyat.
We will appeal for the public to remain calm and we have not given out any instructions or orders to create chaos or unrest because we know this will fit into the government’s need to have this kind of thing and restrict the rakyat more based on just two SMSes or whatever rumours already cordoned off Kuala Lumpur for three days and make life difficult.
We don’t want to make life difficult for anybody. We want the rakyat to remain calm.
Salahuddin Ayub (PAS Youth Chief)
Let the (legal) system solve this problem. I’m concerned, I hope that what happened in 1998 - the brutality of the police - will not happen again. We still believe in the system that if the police investigate in the proper way, justice will be upheld in the country.
Rallies? To that extent, no. As the secretary-general (Kamaruddin Jaffar) mentioned, we will stay calm and see first further developments of Anwar in the next few hours. We will wait until late this evening and we will decide later…
