The Acting Police Chief should not restrict the freedom of speech!

Tun Dr. Mahathir,

I believe the economic situation of Malaysia will continue to deteriorate further if we allow such a power-hungry Acting Police Chief as Tan Sri Ismail Omar to keep asking people to keep their mouth shut and not talk about the problem of financial turmoil. Like the then IGP, Tan Sri Rahim Noor, who had been proven wrong during 1998 in his invocation of the ISA arrest, the present deputy IGP, Tan Sri Ismail Omar, may not be the good candidate to intervene in the process of implementing the parliamentary democracy and restrict the freedom of speech on the discussion about how the possible political power changeover will affect the economic performance or stock market performance. Economic policy or individual investment decision may not be the specialization field of the Police and therefore the Police should not stop people from discussing further and speculating on whether they should come in or get out of the stock market at this critical juncture of market turmoil!

Very often, the Malaysian economy is being destroyed by the top police officer who wishfully thinks that he is the genius who can help to recover from the plunge in the stock market by threatening to invoke the Section 73 of the Internal Security Act (ISA) to arrest those people who make speculation. I sincerely believe that the Malaysian economy will perform much better if there is no further inappropriate intervention from the Police.

Section 73 of the ISA must be abolished in order to further prevent the misuse or abuse of the draconian law by the tyrannic Police Officer.

Onlooker

Extract news from malaysiakini.com:
"Polis: Jangan buat spekulasi ambil alih kuasa Sep 18, 08 4:45pm Timbalan Ketua Polis Negara, Tan Sri Ismail Omar hari ini memberi amaran keras kepada mereka yang membuat spekulasi dan menyebarkan khabar angin mengenai peralihan kuasa dalam kerajaan.

Beliau berkata, spekulasi tersebut telah mengakibatkan ketidakstabilan dalam negara.
Ismail memberi amaran tersebut ketika bercakap kepada wartawan dalam satu sidang akhbar di Bukit Aman petang ini.

Kini. usaha Pakatan Rakyat pimpinan Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim untuk mengambil alih kuasa menjadi perbualan hangat di negara ini."

Are you serious, Tun Dr. Mahathir?

Dear Tun Dr. Mahathir,

It is amazing to read that Tun does begin to voice out in favour of freedom of speech, which is promised in the Federal Constitution of Malaysia!

However, I still have some doubts about Tun's sincerity in choosing the political stand to advocate freedom of speech. I wonder whether Tun will choose to be non-selective in advocating the freedom of speech and giving condemnation to any unlawful act which abruptly violates the civil liberties including such wrongful act as misuse of ISA against some people who chose to say what they truly believe. If Tun is a true fighter for the freedom of speech, then will Tun please explain to us why in 1998 Tun allowed the then IGP, Tan Sri Rahim Noor, to trigger off the ISA arrest on a few internet emailers who just sent out some emails to a limited number of recipients? Why after these emailers had been detained and put under the solitary confinement for more than 40 days, did Tun still allow the prosecuting department of the Bukit Aman Police Headquarter to prosecute them for such a long period of time as six years in order to harrass their life and to shut their mouth off, being afraid of their possibly seeing with their bare eyes the assault of Anwar by the boxer IGP?

Does Tun really have been touched by the Almighty and really want to repent and turn to do good now?

Onlooker

Tun's statement is listed below for reference:
"9. I would like to say this to the Prime Minister and his minions. You may have the power now. But as in five States, you may lose power some day. And this will certainly happen because of your obsession to block all contrary opinion from being heard. It will blind you to the reality of the situation so that you will continue to do wrong things and the people will reject you totally."

Freedom of Speech

Monday, June 16, 2008

Openness
After I stepped down there was a lot of talk about the Malaysian Government being more open. The foreign press gleefully reported that after I left UMNO, there would be even greater freedom in everything.I would not be able to make a comparison between my “dictatorial regime” which a certain former judge described in his book as comparable to that of Idi Amin of Uganda with the present freely elected Government. But I would like to point out certain things that people and journalists seem to ignore, which seems to belie the impression of “openness”.If people care to study the mainstream papers and all the Malaysian television stations, they may notice that until lately the reports were exclusively about the Government’s achievements in managing the economy, the stability of the country and the well-being of the people. The Gross Domestic Product Growth is high and all the different communities seem very happy with the Government.At least four pages in the mainstream newspapers are devoted to the activities of the Prime Minister and his advice to the people on what they should do and how they should live. It is the same with the television stations.Random interviews with members of the public show unfailing support and appreciation of all the policies of the Government and of the Prime Minister.There are no reports of dissent or criticisms of the Government or the Prime Minister in particular. The spontaneous welcome of the people to his visits clearly showed the general love for the leader and support for him. The eagerness to shake his hand was touching.Criticism if any came only from the alternative media, the Internet websites and the bloggers. This is only to be expected in an open society.Then came a bombshell in the form of the disastrous General Election. The "popular" Government parties fared very badly indeed, losing five states, one federal territory and failing to get the usual two-thirds majority in the Federal Parliament. How could a Government with such openness and popularity do so badly, be so obviously rejected by the people?The answer is very strange. It is because there is really no openness. The policy of the Government was and is to shut things up very tightly, so tightly that people, especially the liberal western media failed to detect the lack of openness.It began with the sacking of many of the editorial staff of the party-owned newspapers and their replacement with hand-picked journalists whose main qualification is their hatred of the previous Prime Minister.Then there is the unofficial "supremo" who would phone editors, including those not owned by Government parties to tell them what to write and how to write.The spin doctors would be busy spinning every report to make them look good for the Government.It is the same with the electronic media. All the television stations are either owned by the Government or those close to the Government and understandably chose not to criticise the Government.UMNO members at all levels were not allowed to be critical of the Government. Mostly only those supportive of the Prime Minister would be allowed to attend the UMNO General Assembly. If they have to be bribed in order to extol the virtues of the leader then so be it.A sense of fear has been instilled among UMNO supporters so that they would desist from voicing critical opinions of the Government even between themselves in case they would be reported and might lose something or might be deprived of some goodies.Any forum that was not by the Government authorities or by the party where criticisms of the Government might be heard were out of bounds to party members. In particular if the speaker was the former Prime Minister UMNO members must stay away from them.The Government was very successful in blacking out news or talks about its failures. So good was the spin that even the leaders of the Government believed in the doctored information that they had allowed to be circulated.Everything seemed to go the Government way. Everything seemed under control. Such was the impression created by the censored news that Government leaders in particular the Prime Minister were convinced that in any election, at any time with any candidates the Government party would sweep clean and would romp to victory as in 2004.But the results proved otherwise. Having muzzled the Press and the people, having doctored all information, the Government leaders fell into their own trap. They so believed in their doctored information that they failed completely to detect disaffection and the antagonism of the people including their traditional supporters over their lack of openness and the behaviour as well as the policies of the Government.And so, unable to express their opposition openly, the traditional supporters of the Government parties voted for the opposition or deliberately spoilt their voting slips or simply refused to vote. The results of the March 2008 elections tell the whole story.There is really no openness just as there is no transparency in this Government. You can deceive all of the people some of the time, some of the people all the time but you cannot deceive all the people all the time.
Posted by Dr. Mahathir Mohamad at 11:31 AM




YAB Tun Dr. Mahathir,
Your comment here is a bit biased, Tun. I disagree.

During your tenure as the Prime Minister of Malaysia, you put internet emailers to ISA detention camp when you thought that they talked rubbish in their emails.
However, Pak Lah never even gives you warning or reprimands you or asks the Police to go take your cautioned statement when you allow so many good bloggers or bad bloggers to talk shit about him in your website.

As a matter of fact, Pak Lah also never serves you a legal letter when you accuse him for misuse of power by writing a testimonial for securing contracts of supply in favour of his in-law, in his capacity as the Prime Minister, to a foreign institution in Middle East.

No doubt, Pak Lah is much more open than Tun in so far. Notwithstanding, I always hold a reservation about his openness for I do not know how far Pak Lah's openness level can reach if someone really has to stab on his fatal spot with the sharp knife of defamation words. I see there is no strong words or fatal intimidation that can really put a test on Pak Lah's toleration threshhold so far.

What will you say if I dare you to say something that can seriously defame Pak Lah and that is tantamount to libel, such as Pak Lah took bribes or Pak Lah womanized? I guess if you say it, you won't say it openly too!

The fear of making full utilization of the freedom of speech still exists in many people's heart. There is always certain limit to be imposed on the freedom of speech by the politicians. This is a crude fact! And some people say that these are the checks and balances inherent in the system of Rule of Law.