KUALA LUMPUR,April 14 – Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad questioned the rationale behind the arrests of journalists, saying it would only turn Malaysia into a police state. In a video uploaded on the blog “Apanama” today, the former prime minister said there was no need for police to nab editors and top executives from The Edge Group and The Malaysian Insider late last month.
“When I heard of the arrests of these reporters for saying… something so-called seditious… I don’t think that is not the right way to go… using force,” he said, referring to the arrest of five – one from The Edge Group and four from TMI by police late March for sedition. “Of course, (Datuk Seri Najib Razak) can deny that the action was not his… (it was the) police… but we don’t want to become a police state,” he said.
The five were detained to facilitate investigations into a report published on March 25 which said the Conference of Rulers had rejected a proposal to amend a federal law that would pave the way for hudud to be enforced in Kelantan. The Keeper of the Rulers’ Seal lodged a police report on March 26 to deny that the Conference of Rulers had discussed the matter, adding that it had never issued any statement on hudud in Kelantan.