By-election: Police set up team to monitor 3R issue

MUAR - Johor Police has set up a special team to monitor issues related to religion, race, and the Royal Institution (3R) if they arise during the Pulai Parliament (P161) and the Simpang Jeram State Assembly (N13) by-elections.

State police chief Datuk Kamarul Zaman Mamat said the team is also assigned to monitor the social media pages of any political party contesting to see if there are any attempts to raise the issue.

In fact, he said, the police will not hesitate to take action if the issue of 3R is raised by any political party during the by-election period.

"The Johor Police has set up a monitoring team related to the 3R issue, including among political party supporters throughout the Pulai parliamentary and the Simpang Jeram state assembly elections campaigning.

"In the monitoring, the police also set up a team to control in terms of applications like TikTok and so on to detect any offence," he said in a press conference at the Muar police headquarters here.

Also present were state deputy commissioner M Kumar and Muar police chief Assistant Commissioner Raiz Mukhliz Azman Aziz.

Last Saturday, issue 3R was spoken by Pas President Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang during PN ceramah at Markaz Pas, Bakri.

Following that, a police report against Abdul Hadi was made in Kuala Lumpur, and it is understood that he is likely to be called by the Bukit Aman criminal investigation division for further investigation.

For the record, the investigation papers against Hadi were opened under Section 4(1) of the Sedition Act 1948 and Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998.

Meanwhile, Kamarul Zaman said, in total, as many as 11 ceramah permits and 24 campaigning permits have been approved in both areas in this by-election.

"During the campaigning period from Aug 26 to yesterday (Aug 28), the police received 17 ceramah permits for area N13 (Simpang Jeram), of which 11 passed and two were rejected because the ceramah was not in the electoral area.

"For P161, Pulai, as many as six ceramah permits and 21 campaign permits have been approved," he said.

Kamarul Zaman also said that the police couldn't confirm the existence of gambling elements to determine the election results in this by-election.

However, he said, the matter will be given attention in an effort to control it and ensure that it does not happen.

"So far, we have not been able to find out about the elements of gambling that will influence the results of this by-election.

"It is understood that this element of gambling will control the results of the election, but so far we have not been able to," he said.