RULE OF LAW BUT WHOSE LAW?

YB Ronnie Liu was in the middle of Selangor State Exco Meeting when he was arrested for alleged "crime" committed last year. Arrest first, ask question and investigate later. Or have to arrest him in order to help with the investigation. Well done.

Selangor State exco member Ronnie Liu arrested

Charles Ramendran
sun2surf

PETALING JAYA (Nov 12, 2008) : Selangor executive council member Ronnie Liu was arrested by police today for allegedly obstructing Subang Jaya Municipal Council officers and police personnel from raiding a suspected vice den in Puchong last year.


Ronnie Liu (left) outside the Puchong police station
Selangor police chief DCP Datuk Khalid Abu Bakar said a police team from the Subang Jaya district police headquarters had gone to the state secretariat building in Shah Alam at about 2.30pm where they detained Liu.

He said Liu, the Pandamaran assemblyman who heads the Local Government, Study and Research Committee, was taken to the Puchong police station to have a statement recorded and about an hour later, he was freed on police bail.

Khalid said Liu had allegedly tried to stop the police and MPSJ enforcement officers who were trying to seal a shoplot occupied by an illegal massage parlour.

He said Liu was arrested at the scene then but was later released on police bail and today, police received the order to charge him from the Attorney-General's Chambers.

Liu is expected to be charged at the Petaling Jaya magistrate's court for the offence on Monday.

The controversy over Liu's alleged role in the massage parlour raid cropped up after it was revealed by former Selangor menteri besar Dr Mohd Khir Toyo six months ago.

Khir had accused Liu of obstructing the raid and, by extension, he said the DAP leader was unfit to be in charge of local governments.

Liu denied the allegation and responded by filing a defamation suit against Khir, who is now opposition leader in the Selangor assembly.

In the Oct 5 suit, Liu said Khir had defamed him by describing him as immoral and being involved in vice activities.

Liu, who was on his way to attend the weekly state cabinet meeting, was later taken to the Puchong police station.

Contacted later, Liu said he was arrested in connection with a report filed against him for allegedly obstructing Subang Jaya Municipal Council (MPSJ) enforcement officers from carrying out their duties during an anti-vice raid on a hotel in Puchong last year.

Liu said he will be charged for obstructing MPSJ officials in carying out their duties on Nov 2, 2007.

He said police arrested him at the State Secretariat building and asked him to follow them to the police station.

"The police did not explain to me clearly (the reason for my arrest)," he said, adding that they had acted 'rudely' towards him.

"I told them I had an exco meeting to attend but they said no, I had to go with them. There was no need for them to resort to such high-handed tactics. I would have willingly gone to the station if they had summoned me by letter."

He said he was not handcuffed, but the officers were harsh with him.

Liu denied that he had obstructed the enforcement workers in their duties, saying that he was merely helping hotel guests to retrieve their belongings as they had been chased out of the hotel which was then sealed.