Must be kind of awkward investigating your boss’s big brother. What can you do, right?
Abdullah Abu Bakar, brother to Inspector-General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar and a prominent local UMNO politician, confirmed this morning that he had been called up for questioning by PDRM officers over the protest outside a Taman Medan church on Sunday.
He said he was called by the police at 11am today, following a report by the church committee on the incident.
“I was called by the police this morning and they asked me to come to the station to have my statement recorded because the church lodged a police report,” he told The Malay Mail Online‘s Yiswaree Palansamy.
Abdullah stated that he would abide by whatever instructions he receives from the police on the matter, and that he would meet with investigators this afternoon.
He also pooh-poohed the controversy simmering around his involvement in the now-notorious protest.
“You see, this issue is being blown out of proportion because people know that I am the IGP’s brother and they are trying to humiliate Tan Sri,” he said referring to IGP Khalid, who is his younger brother.
“It’s ok, I am going to be very patient in this…I wasn’t the one who led the protest, mind you.”
On Sunday, a group of about 50 Malay-Muslim residents held a protest outside a new shophouse church in Taman Medan’s Metro Square, calling for the cross displayed on the facade of the church to be removed because it was “an affront to the Malay-majority community” in Taman Medan.
Abdullah reportedly helped broker a dialogue between the protesters – many of whom were said to be UMNO members – and church committee members. After the protest, the church took down its cross, to varying reactions from politicians and the public.
Selangor Menteri Besar Azmin Ali has declared that it was unfair to demand Christians in the area to take down the symbol of their faith, while the PJ City Council announced that the church itself was illegally operating without a permit.
IGP Khalid himself commented that the protest was not seditious in nature, as it “did not touch on religious matters”. His boss, Home MInister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, disagreed, calling for the protesters to be investigated for sedition to the full extent of the Sedition Act 1948.
The debate was made moot with Prime Minister Najib Razak himself stepping in, calling for an investigation over the incident to be carried out.
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