‘JI And Reds Claims Meant to Distract From Crime Issues’

The allegation by the Special Branch that communists and Jemaah Islamiah (JI) have infiltrated Pakatan Rakyat is merely a distraction from Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein’s failure to tackle crime, PKR vice-president Nurul Izzah Anwar says.

“These statements are meant to divert attention from the home minister’s track record, for he has failed to tackle the rising crime rate.

“I urge that he performs his duties properly and not hurl such accusations in bad faith at the opposition,” Nurul Izzah told a press conference today.

She said the people should evaluate the minister’s track record, whom she said had released some 1,000 ‘hard core criminals’ held under the Emergency Ordinance and were later accused of contributing to a spike in the crime rate.

In the meantime, she said, Hishammuddin had mocked Internal Security Act detainees by saying that he would rather have lamb chops while they held a hunger strike.

‘Move to villify Pakatan Rakyat’

At the same press conference, Seputeh MP Teresa Kok accused Hishammuddin of using the police to make the communists-terrorists allegation in order to vilify Pakatan Rakyat.

“Hishammuddin used Special Branch officers to claim that communists and Jemaah Islamiah had infiltrated Pakatan Rakyat. After using the officer, he continued with the same statement.

“This gives the impression that he has ran out of political capital and has to revive old issues,” Kok said at the joint press conference of secretaries-general from Pakatan Rakyat parties.

Last Thursday, Special Branch’s E2 (M) national social extremist threat division assistant director Mohd Sofian Md Makinuddin claimed that the opposition parties were infiltrated by terrorists who wanted to become candidates in the next general election.

Hishamuddin later said that the infiltration has not yet become a national security issue and that action would be taken if it posed a threat.

Pakatan Rakyat has vehemently denied the allegation and challenged the police to name the infiltrators. The police have not responded.