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PETALING JAYA: Dr. Mahathir Mohamad said that the authorities should stop abusing the law and instead uphold the principle of the rule of law.
In his first blog post for 2021, Mahathir said that no one should act above the law, no matter how high their rank.
“Malaysians must feel safe, they must believe that the law is there to protect them,” he said.
He also mentioned cases in the past where people were detained, but no charges were subsequently brought against them.
One such case was that of former Sabah chief minister Shafie Apdal, who was arrested with other Warisan leaders on corruption charges.
“They were arrested, detained for eight days, they had to wear the orange shirt and they were put in cells without beds. So far, no charges have been brought against them, ”Mahathir said.
(Shafie was arrested by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission in April 2017 and later charged with misappropriating RM 1.5 billion in public funds. However, de facto Law Minister Liew Vui Keong told the Senate in August 2018 that the prosecutor had dropped all charges for lack of sufficient evidence).
Mahathir also cited three other examples, but said he had no evidence that these incidents were true. One was that of a man allegedly detained for five days but whose arrest was not disclosed; another dealt with a man detained without trial for two years; and of a woman who was locked in a dark cell.
Mahathir did not give clues as to who these three were, but said of the second man that “it would appear that some powerful person ordered her arrest”, while of the woman, he said that “her abduction was ordered by powerful people.”
He added: “It seems that the powerful are above the law.”
Mahathir said he hoped those stories about the woman and two men were not true. “These rumors appear to be contrary to the rule of law if they are true. They are horrible stories. I have no evidence to show that they are true. But rumors continue to circulate, “he added.
