Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Live bullet sent to Karpal




DAP leader and member of Parliament Karpal Singh received a live bullet in an envelope at his law firm in Kuala Lumpur this afternoon.

The live bullet was accompanied with a note warning him against speaking out on the controversial issues of Malay rights and the constitutional powers of the sultans.“Kalau tak berhenti, peluru ini akan melekat pada kepala dahi kau!” (If you don’t stop, this bullet will be lodged in your forehead).
The one-page note, printed in Bahasa Malaysia, added that this was the “first warning”.The wheelchair-bound politician lodged a police report over the death threat at 5pm at Dang Wangi police station.Met at the police station later this evening, Karpal told reporters that the envelope was hand-delivered to his receptionist at 12.30pm.
“The man was wearing a helmet and he had his visors drawn down. He left hurriedly,” he said, adding that the police have confirmed that bullet was a 9mm ‘live bullet’. When quizzed by reporters, Karpal said he had no clue who the culprits were and would not rule out that the incident could be politically motivated. “It is difficult for me to say, but based on the wordings of the note, it appears to have political motives,” he said. Will seek police protection ‘if necessary’The DAP chairperson and criminal lawyer found himself some unwanted attention recently when some of the remarks he had made concerning the royalty had come under the spotlight.
Over the past week, the renowned lawyer has had 20 police reports lodged against him after he had said the Sultan of Perak had acted unconstitutionally in the transfer of a religious department official and criticised Regent of Kelantan's message at a forum last month.Karpal, who is member of Parliament for Bukit Gelugor in Penang, added that he would consider asking for police protection in the future “if necessary”. Asked if the incident would change his stand on the Perak Sultan’s recent order for the Religious Department Director Jamry Sury to be reinstated, Karpal said he issue had been deemed settled.
He said that he and other quarters have all voiced their arguments and that there was no need to prolong the debate any further. Veteran DAP leader Lim Kit Siang described the incident as deplorable and urged the police to get to the bottom of the matter. “This sort of things should not happen in a country like Malaysia,” said Lim, who were among four DAP MPs to accompanied Karpal to the police station, including his son Gobind who is Puchong MP.

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