Chief Minister’s Office acts against false posting on petition to review Malaysia Agreement
Cheng (centre), together with Buang (left) and Igat hold the police report.
KUCHING: The Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) yesterday lodged a police report to deny that Chief Minister Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Openg has divulged information to anyone that a petition has been presented to Queen Elizabeth II for a review of Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) as claimed by a Facebook posting under the account name of Aman Shah.
According to the Chief Minister’s press secretary, Ambrose Cheng, he lodged the report at Gita police station, accompanied by two political secretaries to the chief minister, Buang Bolhassan and Petrus Igat Mathias.
In the posting, it was claimed that all members of the State Legislative Assembly have unanimously agreed to the review, and supported by 630,000 petitioners.
“The posting is not true and we leave it to the police and Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) to investigate,” Cheng said in a press statement issued here yesterday.
Meanwhile, BN Backbenchers’ Club chairman Abdullah Saidol said he was aware of the issue and was in consensus with the action taken by Cheng and the two political secretaries.
“We would like to reiterate that the state government will not allow such daring and wicked-minded individual or group of people to continue propagating such evil political propaganda which will create erroneous perception.
“They are basically trying to create a perception that could promote ill will and confusion amongst the people. And it’s a desperate attempt to create animosity amongst us in Sarawak and we must make it known that we don’t welcome and reject such immoral political attempt,” he said.
Abdullah, who is also Semob assemblyman and chief Political Secretary to the chief minister said such posting had appeared several times before and alleged that the source was the CMO.
“The posting also implicates members of the Sarawak DUN. All of that is not true, frivolous, vexatious and with malicious intent.
“Some people may think that such posting in social media should not be taken seriously but we deem it as an attempt to undermine CMO or the chief minister’s position and also an insult to members of the DUN,” he stressed.
He hoped that the government would take stern action against such individuals and serve as a warning to any social bigots who tried to destabilise the current peace and harmony.
“This is not an attempt in any way to ‘chock’ the freedom of speech or expression. Our social media is quite liberal and not strictly regulated like other countries,” he said.
He also stressed that the government would not mind ‘constructive criticism but when there is an attempt to create public chaos and social prejudice, we will not tolerate that and totally despise such attitude’.
“All peace loving citizens of our colourful plural society must stay united and continue to be cautious of some people who, due to their selfless political agendas, want to see us in disarray,” added Abdullah.
Meanwhile, state CID chief SAC Datuk Dev Kumar confirmed receiving the report.
“The police are investigating the case under Section 500 of the Penal Code and 233 of the Communication and Multimedia Act. We will bring in the Facebook account holder who uploaded the status for questioning once he is identified,” he said.