Trend towards greater suppression and repression of the people’s
fundamental liberties should be checked and reversed if Malaysia
is to succeed in taking the quantum leap into information age
Media Statement
by Lim Kit Siang
(Petaling Jaya, Sunday): The trend towards
greater suppression and repression of the people’s fundamental liberties
should be checked and reversed if Malaysia is to succeed in taking the
quantum leap into the information age.
Since the Nov. 29, 1999 general election, the Barisan Nasional seems
set on curtailing whatever limited freedom and democratic space still enjoyed
by Malaysians and news of such developments have almost become a
daily fare.
The latest instances of such a lurch towards more undemocratic
politics and governance are:
-
Ban on the independent bimonthly magazine Detik.
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The announcement by the Kuala Lumpur Chief Police Officer, Deputy Comm
Datuk Kamaruddin Ali that open public rallies, whether political or non-political
in nature, will not be allowed in the city with immediate effect.
-
The escalation of the politics of vengeance and vendetta by the Malacca
Chief Minister, Datuk Wira Mohd Ali Rustam, with the transfer to ten civil
servants, including a senior officer from Jasin, out of their state and
federal departments for having supported the Opposition during the general
election last year. Mohd Ali has already taken action against two
banks, 14 panel doctors, 24 contractors, two legal firms and a property
valuation firm in Malacca in his political witch-hunt so far.
-
The warning by Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah that UMNO may end up like
a dinosaur - "big and seemingly strong but actually clumsy and waiting
to become extinct" - after the undemocratic UMNO constitution and structure
had shut him out from freely contesting for a top UMNO post in May.
-
A continued servile and subservient press, which could even defend the
crude, vulgar and indecent gestures of Pahang Mentri Besar, Adnan Yaakob
on Sanggang by-election nomination as by a New Straits Times political
columnist in a most shallow and hypocritical piece yesterday.
The voters of Sanggang in the by-election on April 1 have the opportunity
to speak up on behalf of all Malaysians to demand greater democratic space
for the people on the nation’s entry into the new millennium, and not greater
repression and suppression of the people’s basic rights.
(26/3/2000)
*Lim Kit Siang - DAP National Chairman