Yesterday, I said that Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar has proven to be the most “political” Inspector-General of Police in his first week as the top police officer in the country.

Khalid should realise that this is no compliment at all. What Malaysians want is not the most “political” IGP to defend the existing regime but the most “professional” IGP to protect the most human and fundamental right of Malaysians – to be free from crime and the fear of crime.

Although the new Home Minister, Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi has publicly claimed that he had no hand in the police crackdown on Pakatan Rakyat leaders and civil society activists, he should realise that nobody in Malaysia believe him.

His statement yesterday that the police will appeal against the decision by magistrate Norashikin Sahat rejecting the police application to remand PKR MP for Batu, Tian Chua, democracy activist Haris Ibrahim and PAS activist Tamrin Ghaffar for another seven days for investigations under the Sedition Act 1948 is proof of Zahid’s political interference with the police in this matter.

If the police has decided to appeal against the magistrate’s decision to deny police application to remand the trio for another seven days, why is this decision announced by Zahid and not by the IGP or police officer in charge of the matter?

Or is Zahid explicitly sending a coded directive to the Police that it should appeal against the magistrate’s decision – a blatant and flagrant abuse of power by the Home Minister?

If Zahid takes his duties as Home Minister as a professional and not as “a politician in the garb of Home Minister”, he should have censured the police for applying to remand the trio by another seven days, as it is a gross abuse of power as well as highlights the police’s gross inefficiency and incompetence.

The police want to charge Tian Chua, Haris Ibrahim and Tamrin under Section 4 of the Sedition Act 1948 for what they said at the forum at the Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall on May 13.

As the police has all the evidence they need with regard to the trio’s speeches at the KLSCAH forum on May 13 for their sedition charges, what is there for the police to further investigate to justify their application for another seven-day remand of the trio?

Clearly, the police is acting in a very unprofessional and punitive manner which reeks of all the excesses of a gross abuse of power.

Whose idea was it that the police should apply for a seven-day remand of the trio – the police or Zahid?

Whose idea was it in the first place that the trio should be arrested and charged for sedition – the police or Zahid?

If the police are to succeed in regaining public confidence as an efficient, professional, independent and world-class police force which protects the safety and security of citizens, tourists and investors and not a political appendage of the government-of-the-day at the beck and call of its political masters to do their political bidding, the police should:

1. refrain from appealing against the magistrate’s most laudable and appropriate decision to reject the police application for a seven-day remand of Tian Chua, Haris and Tamrin;

2. drop all proposals to charge the trio under the Sedition Act unless and until the police are prepared to prove that they do not apply double standards and are equally committed to charge UMNO and pro-UMNO leaders under the Sedition Act, including the former Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, the former Court of Appeal judge Mohd Noor Abdullah and former Director-General of Education, Tan Sri Abdul Rahman Arshad.

3. Drop all charges against Pakatan Rakyat leaders which are clearly political in nature, including charges under the Peaceful Assembly Act 2012 against DAP MP for Ipoh Timor Thomas Su and the PKR Perak Secretary Mohammad Anuar Zakaria (both of whom are to be charged in Ipoh on Monday) and earlier against PKR Communications Director Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad.