Bukit Aman summons Johor DAP’s Sheikh Umar over street protest post

JOHOR BARU, July 18 — Johor DAP vice-chief Sheikh Umar Bagharib Ali has been asked to present himself to Bukit Aman in Kuala Lumpur tomorrow morning.

In a Facebook posting today, the former state assemblyman said he will have his statement recorded in relation to a Facebook post in June on the rising cost of living.

He added that he would be meeting federal investigators at Tower Two of the Royal Malaysia Police headquarters at around 11am.

“I understand that I have been called by Bukit Aman investigators to be investigated and have my statement recorded over my previous Facebook post asking if it was time for the public to take to the streets,” he said.

Sheikh Umar, who is also a member of DAP’s central executive committee, explained that the post in question was written when Malaysians were struggling with inflation, which had made their lives difficult.

“Please pray for me,” added the 37-year-old socio-political activist in the same post.

On June 22, Sheikh Umar urged the public to consider gathering in the streets of Kuala Lumpur for their voices to be heard by the government in response to the rising cost of living.

He pointed out that the public assembling in large numbers in the state capital would send a signal of their frustrations to the government.

However, on June 24, it was widely reported that Johor Ruler Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar criticised Sheikh Umar for proposing street demonstrations to pressure the government to resolve the country’s cost of living crisis.

The sultan said that street demonstrations were an irresponsible reaction to the problem and there were more constructive methods to resolve the issue.

Last month, the government announced the removal of the ceiling price for chicken and chicken eggs, as well as subsidies for cooking oil in bottles of 2kg, 3kg and 5kg, from July 1.

This followed an announcement by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob that the subsidy for cooking oil in plastic packets will still be maintained by the government, and only that for bottled cooking oil will be removed.

He also announced a new round of cash aid as part of additional Bantuan Keluarga Malaysia (BKM) funds to combat rising prices, with the Phase 2 payment involving an allocation of RM1.11 billion and each BKM recipient will get up to RM400 depending on their respective BKM qualification category.