A FREELANCE journalist has today lodged a police report against a Sarawak assistant minister for alleged abuse of power by getting him arrested over a Facebook posting.

Joseph Tawie, a retired public relations officer for Sarawak police, said in his Facebook posting that police had questioned him on Saturday following the assistant minister’s police report over Tawie’s earlier posting.

He said he was picked up by four police officers at his coconut farm in Simunjan on Saturday to be brought down to Kuching to be questioned. Simunjan is about 140km from Kuching.

He filed his counter report against Assistant Minister for E-Commerce Naroden Majais, at the one-stop centre of the Kuching district police headquarters in Simpang Tiga.

Tawie said he admitted to police to posting a “story” about his assemblyman asking tuai rumah (village chiefs) and their representatives in Simunjan to go to one of Naroden’s farms for a gotong royong.

In the posting, Tawie claimed two tuai rumah refused to attend the function.

Naroden, the assemblyman for Gedong, reportedly filed a police report on Saturday claiming Tawie’s posting was “fake news”.

Narrating on what had happened on Saturday, Tawie said in his latest posting that four police officers, including two inspectors, visited him that noon in two unmarked cars and arrested him on the spot.

“I asked what were the crimes that I have committed. They told me that it has something to do with my FB posting regarding YB Naroden,” he said.

Tawie has engaged Batu Lintang assemblyman See Chee How, a practising lawyer, to represent him in any legal fallout.

PKR vice-president Ali Biju was quick to issue a statement yesterday evening, calling for calm among Iban social media users “who are distressed by the incident”.

Ali, who is also the Saratok MP, said the arrest and questioning was just a “standard operating procedure for police to investigate reports lodged with them”.

“As Naroden had lodged a report against Joseph Tawie, it is reasonable for and expected of police to investigate the matter accordingly.

“This case is now in the good hands of police and we should give them time and space to conduct their investigations in a professional manner,” Ali said. – February 4, 2019.