PSM holds Najib accountable for Jeyakumar’s well-being

By Yow Hong Chieh, The Malaysian Insider

KUALA LUMPUR, July 11 — The Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM) has said it will hold the prime minister and police responsible if anything happens to central committee member Dr Michael Jeyakumar, who was recently hospitalised for heart problems.

He was taken to the National Heart Institute (IJN) on Saturday after complaining of heart palpitations and is now being warded at the specialist centre’s coronary care unit.

This is the second time Dr Jeyakumar, who is Sungai Siput MP, has been hospitalised since his arrest late last month for allegedly planning to “wage war against the Yang di-Pertuan Agong”.

“We suspect his condition is due to the long hours of interrogations by the police Special Branch. Other detainees have also expressed similar ordeal as the police is trying to force them to admit things they have not done.”

The party also demanded that Dr Jeyakumar and five others detained with him — PSM deputy chairman M. Saraswathy, central committee members Choo Chon Kai and M. Sugumaran, Sungai Siput branch secretary A. Letchumanan and national youth chief R. Sarathbabu — be released immediately  from Emergency Ordinance (EO) detention.

“Please charge them in an open court if they have breached any laws,” the statement said.

They were arrested in Penang on June 25 along with two dozen other PSM members under Section 122 after police found in their possession T-shirts bearing the faces of former Malayan Communist Party (MCP) leaders Chin Peng and Rashid Maidin.

Police later dropped all charges against the six but immediately rearrested them under the EO and charged the remaining 24 for possession of Bersih material and involvement in an illegal organisation.

The latter group has since posted bail and are now waiting for their cases to go to court.