By Lisa J. Ariffin
KUALA LUMPUR, May 21 — Prominent activist Irene Fernandez lashed out today at the police for investigating her for sedition instead of dealing with reports of Malaysian authorities’ abuse of migrant workers.
“Why waste time to intimidate me when they should be investigating police reports made by migrant workers who have been abused?” the Tenaganita executive director told reporters here.
The police started investigating Fernandez last week after two officers, one from the People’s Volunteer Corps (Rela) and another from a non-governmental organisation, filed two complaints over her alleged comment published in an Indonesian daily that Bangladeshi workers were oppressed and regularly intimidated by the authorities and Malaysia was unsafe for migrant workers.
“The speediness with which the police have chosen to act in investigating the reports against me is perplexing,” Fernandez said.
“However, we note with utmost regret that the police have not acted with similar enthusiasm for swift justice when over 15 reports have so far been filed this year by Tenaganita on behalf of migrant workers,” she added, pointing out her organisation also has evidence of “over 10 different police reports filed by migrant workers themselves on various rights violations”.
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