PKR Youth has questioned the arrests of 18 of its members who had gathered this morning outside Politeknik Seberang Prai, ahead of Prime Minister Najib Razak’s visit, with banners demanding the release of jailed opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim.

The group was part of a flashmob that had gathered near the college where Najib is expected to attend a “kenduri rakyat”. The prime minister is on a one-day working visit to Penang.

“They just gathered in a civilised manner. They didn’t do anything. There was no fighting. They were taken away even before the PM arrived.

“Are they not citizens of the country?” PKR Youth deputy chief Dr Afif Bahardin told The Malaysian Insight.

Among those picked up by the police were state PKR chief Asril Sani Abdul Razak and Seberang Prai Municipal Councillor Ong Jing Cheng.

Before the flashmob, they had put up banners demanding the release of Anwar, who was formerly Permatang Pauh MP and now serving a five-year jail term for sodomy in the Sungai Buloh prison.

Permatang Pauh is a PKR stronghold. The seat is now held by opposition leader and PKR president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, Anwar’s wife.

Afif, who is also Pakatan Harapan Youth and information chief, was at the Seberang Prai Tengah district police headquarters in Bandar Perda, Bukit Mertajam, where the detained PKR Youth members were taken to.

He said those detained were being interviewed by the police and PKR’s lawyers were on their way to the police station to assist them.

“We need to find out under which law the police had detained them. Is welcoming the PM now a crime?”

“PKR kids are not like Umno kids who had crashed into the state assembly building,” he said, referring to a 2015 incident where a group of men, including some Umno members, broke through the Penang legislative assembly gate to protest against DAP’s Seri Delima assemblyman R.S.N. Rayer, who had uttered the remark “celaka Umno” (damn Umno). – August 17, 2017.