Ipoh Barat MP M Kula Segaran said the police should be spending their time probing criminal and corruption cases instead of the campaign. He said the people were merely expressing their frustration and unhappiness with Putrajaya.

In a statement, the former minister said it was the government’s responsibility to listen and respond to the people’s voice as they aired their sufferings and grievances.

“Will the IGP order the police force to focus on relevant police issues and stay away from legitimate democratic processes? White or black flag, it shows a robust democracy in action.

“It is vital for the police to distinguish between legitimate grievances of people in the current context from real threats to national security such as the manipulation of racial and religious issues by politicians and cybertroopers in social media.”

The black flag campaign involves three demands for Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin to resign, Parliament to reconvene and for the state of emergency to end. Up to Saturday evening, over 34,000 tweets were tagged with the #bendarahitam hashtag.

Federal CID director Abd Jalil Hassan had said the police were probing the campaign for sedition, public mischief and misuse of network facilities for offensive purposes.

Sungai Buloh MP Sivarasa Rasiah slammed the probe as “absolute nonsense”, urging the IGP against allowing the police force to be used as a political tool.

“There is nothing illegal in calling for the prime minister to resign, for Parliament to convene & for the emergency to end, and using a black flag to express your view,” he said in a Twitter post today.