#kerajaangagal6 – Call for immediate and unconditional release of artist-activist Fahmi Reza as political satire is not a crime
Malaysia is swiftly sliding down the abyss of oppression and authoritarianism – the latest example being the arrest of artist-activist Fahmi Reza.
I join the call for the immediate and unconditional release of Fahmi as political satire is not a crime.
What is most deplorable is the police break-in into Fahmi’s house and damage to the front-door during the arrest.
If Parliament had not been undemocratically and unconstitutionally suspended, Fahmi’s arbitrary arrest would have overshadowed all other issues in Parliament – but parliamentary scrutiny and oversight of the Executive to provide the constitutional check-and-balance of the Executive does not now exist as Parliament has been undemocratically suspended.
Malaysia is not only having a kakistocracy, we are having an oppressive and authoritarian kakistocracy.
The kakistocratic character of the backdoor, incompetent, undemocratic and illegitimate government is best exemplified by its failure to effectively fight the Covid-19 pandemic, despite contrary claims by the Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin yesterday.
It would appear that the government is totally lost as to how to spearhead an “all-of-government” and “whole-of-society” strategy and approach in the war against the Covid-19 pandemic although it was more than a year since the pandemic started – or Parliament would not have been suspended.
Yesterday is the seventh consecutive day the daily increase of new Covid-19 cases have exceeded 2,000 mark.
The government is warning that Covid-19 cases may return to the heights not seen since the peak of the third wave due to non-compliance with the Covid SOPs.
This is outrageous and is proof that the declaration of an emergency to purportedly combat the Covid-19 pandemic on January 12 is an abysmal failure.
In the last few days, there have been examples of the kakistocracy that Malaysia is suffering from, viz:
- Schoolgirls shamed, groped and violated' in period spot checks;
- Selective prosecution in charging the eight members from the United Chinese School Association of Jerantut with unlawful assembly in February while government’s inaction in the case of the Subang Umno chief, who led a group of residents to protest against the construction of SJKC Too Joon Hing on April 19, saying a national school for all races should be built instead; and
- The government’s decision to pass an emergency ordinance allowing it to tap into the National Trust Fund (KWAN) for vaccine expenses.
In my #kerajaangagal3 statement on Tuesday, 20th April, 2021, I had referred three instances of a kakistocracy-in-action:
- The injustice of the incarceration of Simon Momoh, a Nigerian who is under detention pending deportation by the Immigration Department after having served his one-day jail sentence for drink driving when Momoh should be released immediately to reunite with his Malaysian family, wife Low Kar Hui and daughters Divine and Elisha;
- The fate of the 122-year-old Convent Bukit Nenas in Kuala Lumpur;
- The lop-sided, biased and inaccurate secondary school history textbooks as exposed by Malaysian historian Ranjit Singh Malhi.
Two of these three issues have made progress, with the Shah Alam High Court ruling that the Immigration Department had contravened the Federal Constitution and the Immigration Act 1959 by continuing to detain the Nigerian in the absence of a remand order and the 60-year extension of the land lease of the SMK Convent Bukit Nenas in Kuala Lumpur.
Malaysians must not give up the fight to justice, freedom, excellence and integrity.
We must now save the country from kakistocracy.