Will the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, heed the patriotic voice of reason of his brother, Nazir Razak, for the Anti-Fake News Bill to be deferred?

All right-thinking Malaysians are one with Nazir in abhorring fake news, especially those based of lies and falsehoods maliciously aimed at inciting hatred or ill-will, but the Anti-Fake News Bill is not the answer to the problem of combating such fake news.

I have myself been a victim of fake news and false information for decades, demonizing me as anti-Malay, anti-Islam; cause of May 13 riots in Kuala Lumpur in 1969 when I was never in Kuala Lumpur during the relevant period; a communist; agent of foreign powers having been accused of being agent of CIA, M16, KGB and Australian Intelligence; that I have received RM1 billion from Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad to allow the entry of PPBM into Pakatan Harapan, received RM100 million from Malaysian tycoon Robert Kuok, financed a news portal with RM40 million donation, received more than a billion ringgit from Israeli sources, and other monstrous and evil lies.

Are the Income Tax department and the Special Branch in Malaysia so inefficient, incompetent and unprofessional to allow such dastardly activities to take place in the past few decades without knowing about them?

It is of course impossible. In fact, Malaysia has one of the most competent, efficient and top-class Special Branch in the world, and the Malaysian Special Branch professionals know these fake news and false information about me are just downright lies – the handiwork of the UMNO/BN propagandists and well-funded quinoa cybertroopers.

Will all these people who concoct and peddle these fake news and false information about me be arrested, prosecuted and punished with half-a-million ringgit fine or 10 years’ jail or both when the Anti-Fake News Bill becomes law? In fact, one UMNO MP repeated such a fake news in Parliament on Wednesday, and accused me for being a communist!

Of course not. These criminals will continue to enjoy good pay, perks and privileges from the powers-that-be.

False news must be exposed and combated but not by the Anti-Fake News Bill, which even the Suhakam Chairman, Tan Sri Razali Ismail has warned would have enormous implications and could inspire an authoritarian form of government.

I have been suspended from Parliament for six months, the second time in the 13th Parliament! Is it because I was concocting or peddling fake news?

Of course not! I am suspended because I stood up to ask the Speaker, Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia, where he had the powers whether under the Federal Constitution or the Dewan Rakyat Standing Orders to impose an embargo on the Election Commission’s Report on Constituency Redelineation after it had been tabled in Parliament last Thursday.

The Speaker not only have no powers under the Federal Constitution or the Dewan Rakyat Standing Orders to unilaterally and arbitrarily impose an embargo on a report after it was tabled in the House, he had denied Members of Parliament the opportunity to have public consultation and feedbacks on the Election Commission’s Constituency Redelineation Proposals, which is against all basic principles of good governance, public accountability and parliamentary democracy.

In the last two days, we saw how a Parliament of a global kleptocracy will degenerate into an echo chamber of an kleptocratic Executive.

On Wednesday, the constituency redelineation report of the Election Commission was rammed through Parliament, without giving MPs any time or opportunity whatsoever to get public feedback or seek public consultation on the Election Commission’s new constituency redelineation proposals, or to have meaningful debate – just to maintain Malaysia as a global kleptocracy.

On Thursday, Parliament started the debate on the Anti-Fake News Bill which is nothing but a Save Najib from 1MDB Scandal Bill, which will criminalise all news about the 1MDB scandal in Malaysia which is available worldwide and punishable as fake news with excessive penalties of RM500,000 fine, six years’ jail or both.

I agree with Nazir’s call for the deferment of Anti-Fake News Bill, as the 13th Parliament should not further tarnish and stain Malaysia’s reputation by enacting a law which will be a new weapon to cover-up corruption, to entrench Malaysia’s 3Is – ignominy, infamy and iniquity – as a global kleptocracy!

I have been denied the opportunity to debate both on the Election Commission’s Report on Constituency Redelineation Proposals and the Anti-Fake News Bill 2018 as I have been arbitrarily suspended for six months from Parliament, and the Speaker and Deputy Speakers do not see me when I enter the Chamber, and I am not allowed to debate and my vote is not counted.

I had wanted to ask the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Azalina Othman in the debate on the Anti-Fake News Bill whether Prime Minister Najib would be the first to be charged under the Anti-Fake News Act for the fake news last week that the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) had cleared him of any wrongdoing in the 1MDB scandal, when the PAC Report had not done so.

Azalina can still answer this question.

(Media Statement 2 in Gelang Patah on Friday, 30th March 289, 2018)