COMMENT Inspector-general of police Khalid Abu Bakar always seems to be missing the point. He has a poor analytic grasp of the security situation in the country.
The recent protests organised by a number of Tamil groups in Kuala Lumpur had nothing to with their support for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
These groups were there to protest the arrival of Mahinda Rajapaksa, the former president of Sri Lanka who is held responsible for the deaths of hundreds and thousands of Tamils, the disappearance of thousands and thousands of people, many of them children, and the rapes and sexual abuse of Tamil women during the civil war that ended in 2009.
The LTTE is dead and has been gone for a number of years. Sri Lankan Tamils might be nostalgic about this national liberation movement, but they fully realise that cannot be revived.
How can Khalid, the top cop of this country, say that the protesters were out there to support the LTTE? This is clearly wrong!
The gatherings were organised not only to protest against the entry of Rajapaksa but to show displeasure towards the Malaysian government for being insensitive towards Tamils in Malaysia.
Khalid betrays his ignorance by saying that the United Nations has listed the LTTE as a banned organisation. I ask him to show proof of this and not to give inaccurate information to confuse the public.
I am sorry to say that Khalid has lost his moral calibre to provide leadership and direction to the police force in the country.
The allegations that the IGP’s family members are involved in owning and managing arms shops and a shooting academy have created doubts about his integrity and moral leadership.
The majority of those involved in the protests were peace-loving Malaysians. However, the action of a few who engaged in assaults could have marred the otherwise peaceful protests.
Despite these incidents, Malaysian Tamils did succeed in registering their anger against Rajapaksa, the man responsible for the present misery and agony of Tamils in the north and east of Sri Lanka.
P RAMASAMY is Deputy Chief Minister II of Penang and the state assemblyperson for Perai.
