Archive for October, 2019

Tanjong Piai will be the WhatsApp by-election in Malaysia

There had been an exponential increase in lies, fake news and hate speech in the past few days, which will be small fry when compared to the explosion of lies, fake news and hate speech that will take place in the two weeks of the Tanjong Piai parliamentary by-election from Nov. 2 to Nov. 16.

In fact, the Tanjong Piai by-election will be the WhatsApp by-election in Malaysia.

Already, there is in circulation on the social media a purported Pakatan Harapan WhatsApp poster for the Pakatan Harapan candidate Karmaine Sardini, calling on the Tanjong Piai voters to “Undilah Calon Melayu & Islam”, which is clearly designed to spook and antagonise the 42% of the Chinese voters and 1% of the Indian voters – as the Barisan Nasional candidate will be MCA’s Wee Jeck Seng.

A news portal article today headlined “Fake news one of top 3 factors set to cost Pakatan Tg Piai seat” reported:

“A VIRAL WhatsApp message shared in Tg Piai recently claimed that Budget 2020 has funds for men who want to marry more than one wife and this has voters hopping mad.

“It’s one of the main reasons that 48% of Tg Piai voters want to reject Pakatan Harapan in the by-election, a survey by think-tank Institut Darul Ehsan (IDE) shows.

“The message is one of many fake news items and misinformation spread among villages and community circles in Tg Piai – a predominantly agricultural constituency at the southern-most tip of the peninsula.

“The spread of fake news is one of the top three factors that will determine whether PH can hold on to the seat in the November 16 by-election, IDE said.”

In the United Kingdom, even before the date of its General Election was fixed for December 12, British national newspapers were full of articles like “Will fake news wreck the coming general election?” Read the rest of this entry »

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Rise up Malaysians, unite to achieve greatness for Malaysia as a top world-class nation of unity, justice, freedom, excellence and integrity and to resolve the problems of poverty and gross inequality in the country

With four DAP members, one State Exco and another State Assemblyman, still in detention for suspected LTTE terrorist connections under SOSMA, and the description of an academician that the 17-month government of Pakatan Harapan is an “unmitigated disaster”, it is difficult to feel that there is anything to celebrate in this year’s Deepavali today.

The message of Deepavali, however, is an eternal one – the spiritual victory of light over darkness, good over evil and knowledge over ignorance.

We must never cease to hope or to succumb to hopelessness and despair.

While the 17-month government of the Pakatan Harapan has fallen below expectations, it is definitely not an “unmitigated disaster”.

Pakatan Harapan must be firm in our resolve and commitment to implement the reforms as promised in Buku Harapan in the 14th General Election and this is why the Pakatan Harapan Presidential Council has established a special committee under the Deputy Defence Minister, Liew Chin Tong, to review the Pakatan Harapan 14th general election manifesto.
Read the rest of this entry »

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The target of the lies, fake news and hate speech on the social media since yesterday is the DAP which was bombed with lies, fake news and hate speech that it is the ”komunis moden in Malaysia” and that there will be no peace in Malaysia unless there is no “communist” in Cabinet

There had been various waves of attacks of lies, fake news and hate speech on the social media on leaders and parties in the Pakatan Harapan Government, whether focussing on the Prime Minister, Dr. Mahathir Mohamad and Bersatu, or PKR President Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and PKR or Mohamad Sabu and Amanah.

Since yesterday, the target of the lies, fake news and hate speech on the social is the DAP which was bombed with lies, fake news and hate speech since yesterday that is the ”komunis moden in Malaysia” and that there will be no peace in Malaysia unless there is no “communist” in the Cabinet.

If the social media attack is to be believed, Malaysia has a Special Branch which is one of the most incompetent in the world, which will be most unfair to the Special Branch, as the DAP had never been accused of being communist or communist-sympathiser for the past 53 years.

Furthermore, we are today in an age where communism has lost its power and influence as representing the irresistible wave of the future.

In this connection, the statement by an adviser to the police deradicalisation programme, Ahmad El Muhammady warning that the nation could witness a repeat of the May 13, 1969 race riots bear serious consideration.
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UMNO and PAS have stepped up their campaign of fake news and hate speech to dismember the DAP so as to destroy the Pakatan Harapan government

UMNO and PAS have stepped up their campaign of fake news and hate speech to dismember the DAP so as to destroy the Pakatan Harapan government.

I warned a few days ago that with the approach of Nov. 11, when the Kuala Lumpur High Court will decide whether the former Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak walks free or will be ordered to enter his defence on seven charges of abuse of power, corruption and money-laundering involving RM42 million of funds from SRC International, there will be an escalation of lies, fake news and hate speech.

This is what has happened.

A PAS leader has joined an UMNO leader to call for the banning of the DAP, replete with lies, fake news and hate speech.

DAP is accused of wanting to create a Christian Malaysia, a subject which had never been brought up in the DAP at any level in the past 53 years, completely ignoring the numerous public declarations which had been made by the DAP endorsing and upholding the fundamental features of the Constitution including the position of Islam as the official religion of the country.

DAP is also accused of supporting the LTTE and Tamil Tigers, when the Sri Lanka civil war had ended 10 years ago in 2009, and LTTE had been a defunct organisation in the past decade. There was never at any time in the past when the DAP had been accused of supporting LTTE.

DAP is further accused of promoting communism and the communist struggle which goes against the core principles and commitment of the DAP in the past 53 years to conduct a peaceful democratic struggle through the electoral process.

We are seeing in Malaysia a mutation of the spread of fake news and hate speech using unrelated old photos, videos, messages and lies to create a new false narrative in the social media – even alleging that I am related to former Malayan Communist Party (MCP) leader Chin Peng which were barefaced lies.

Malaysians must not fall victim to the lies, fake news and hate speech which are emerging to be a great threat to the unity, harmony and even survival of Malaysia as a plural society.

(Speech by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang at the Kedah DAP State Convention in Alor Setar on Friday, 25th October 2019)

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Hew was a “angry young man”, unorthodox and irreverent, to the extent of being extremely crude and vulgar, to fight for justice and a better Malaysia and the last thing he would do is to be a communist or to promote communism

Hew adalah seorang yang bersemangat “darah muda” — yang lain daripada yang lain, sehingga dilihat sebagai seorang yang kasar dan tidak sopan — dalam perjuangannya untuk sebuah Malaysia yang lebih baik, adalah mustahil untuk beliau menjadi seorang komunis ataupun memperjuangkan komunisme

Saya telah mengenali Hew Kuan Yaw selama tiga dekad, sejak daripada hari awal perjuangan beliau untuk sebuah Malaysia yang lebih baik dan adil. Walaupun beliau merupakan seorang yang bersemangat “darah muda” yang lain daripada yang lain, sehingga kelihatan seperti seorang yang kasar, tidak beradab dan memalukan, saya tidak percaya yang beliau akan sekali-kali memperjuangkan komunisme, apatah lagi menjadi seorang komunis.

Amatlah mengejutkan apabila saya membaca laporan di mana buku komik beliau yang bertajuk Inisiatif Jalur dan Jalan: Meraih Manfaat Bersama telah diharamkan oleh Kementerian Dalam Negeri di bawah Seksyen 7(1) Akta Mesin Cetak dan Penerbitan 1984 atas beberapa sebab, antaranya; mempromosikan komunisme dan menunjukkan simpati terhadap perjuangan komunis.

Saya mempunyai banyak perbezaan idea dan pemikiran dengan Hew dan saya belum berpeluang untuk membaca buku komik beliau ketika isu ini menjadi hangat, tetapi saya percaya yang beliau bukanlah seorang komunis ataupun seorang yang bersimpati dengan komunis.

Saya tidak bersetuju dengan tindakan Kementerian Dalam Negeri yang mendakwa buku komik Hew mempromosi dan bersimpati dengan perjuangan komunis.

Saya menyeru supaya pegawai Kementerian menyemak semula pengharaman ini, selari dengan agenda keterbukaan Pakatan Harapan tanpa meremehkan isu keselamatan dalam negara.

Malahan, Janji ke-27 Buku Harapan secara terang-terangan menyeru pemansuhan undang-undang menindas seperti Akta Mesin Cetak dan Penerbitan 1984.

(Kenyataan Media Ahli Parlimen DAP Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang di Kuala Lumpur pada hari Khamis 24 Oktober 2019)

Read the rest of this entry »

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Latest Opposition strategy – dismember DAP and Amanah to dismember Pakatan Harapan Government

The latest Opposition strategy seems to be to dismember the Pakatan Harapan Government by dismembering DAP and Amanah.

This could be seen by the hectic campaign on the one hand to paint the DAP as anti-Malaysia in supporting the LTTE although the Sri Lanka civil war had ended 10 years ago and there was never any evidence to show that DAP had supported terrorism of any form and on the other hand to demonise the DAP as anti-Indian as stated by an UMNO Member of Parliament in the current debate in Parliament on the 2020 Budget.

This is also the line taken in the attack over Hew Kuan Yau’s comic book on China’s Belt and Road Initiative – to paint the DAP as on the one hand communist and a stooge of the Chinese Government while on the other hand, a “running dog” betraying the rights and interests of the Chinese Malaysians although both DAP and DAPSY had nothing to do with the comic book.

I had warned two days ago that there will more lies, fake news and hate speech with the approach of November 11, when the Kuala Lumpur High Court will decide whether the former Prime Minister, Datuk Najib Razak walks free or will be ordered to enter his defence on seven charges of abuse of power, corruption and money-laundering involving RM42 million of funds from SRC International, and if Najib’s defence is called, from November 11 till the judgement of the SRC trial. Read the rest of this entry »

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Desperation has caused UMNO-PAS conspirators to change tactics – abandon the “no confidence motion” strategy and change tack to try to cause downfall of Pakatan Harapan government by targeting DAP and AMANAH

Desperation has caused the UMNO-PAS conspirators to change tactics – abandon the “no confidence motion” strategy and to try to cause the downfall of Pakatan Harapan government by targeting DAP and AMANAH.

This is why unlike the previous parliamentary meetings, there was no speculation before the present Budget parliamentary meeting to float the possibility that there would be a “no confidence motion” to remove Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad as Prime Minister.

The “no confidence motion” line was earlier decided as the strategy to destabilise and topple the Pakatan Harapan government after the historic decision of a democratic and peaceful transition of power on 9th May 2018 where contrary to pre-election UMNO propaganda and warning, I was not only not the Prime Minister, I did not play any official government role and was not even in the Cabinet.

The earlier strategy to plot for a new combination and permutation of parliamentary numbers to secure sufficient parliamentary support to carry out a “no confidence motion” against Mahathir as the Prime Minister, or at least the fevered speculation that this was afoot, did not materialise and was quite an abject failure. Read the rest of this entry »

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DAP committed to make life better for all Malaysians, regardless of race, religion or region

It was quite a nostalgic occasion for me when the founder members of the Bintulu DAP Branch came on stage to be recognised and given a souvenir to commemorate their signal contribution to the founding to the Bintulu DAP Branch in 1978, as I was here in Bintulu 41 years ago.

It is very heart-warming to see the old warriors, men or women, who had toiled, with their sweat, blood and tears, in the past four decades to build DAP in Bintulu, Sarawak and Malaysia to what it is today.

Bintulu of 1978 is very different from Bintulu of 2019, but the commitment of the DAP, to make life better for all Malaysians, regardless of race, religion or region, remains constant and unchanged.

Some thirty years ago in February 1990 when Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad first announced Vision 2020 of Malaysia becoming a fully developed nation in the year 2020, he referred to 19 countries that were generally regarded as “developed countries”. Read the rest of this entry »

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Malaysia is pioneering a mutation of fake news and hate speech by using unrelated old photos, videos, messages and lies to create a new false narrative – for instance that DAP supported LTTE, part of an evil but non-existing LTTE-DAP-Israel-America quartet and that Lee Kuan Yew and Chin Peng were my cousins

Malaysia is pioneering a mutation of fake news and hate speech by using unrelated old photos, videos, messages and lies to create a new false narrative in the social media – for instance, that DAP supported LTTE, that DAP was part of an evil but non-existing LTTE-DAP-Israel-American quartet, that the former Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew and former Malayan Communist Party (MCP) leader Chin Peng were my cousins and a whole host of other bare-faced lies.

Until the recent arrests last week, DAP had never been accused in the past 43 years of having supported the LTTE whether since its formation in 1976, or during the 26-year civil war in Sri Lanka from 1983-2009, or in the last 10 years since LTTE’s military defeat and the killing of the LTTE leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran in 2009.

Why is the DAP suddenly accused of supporting the revival of LTTE and the publication of the monstrous lie in the PAS publication, Harakah, of an evil but non-existing LTTE-DAP-Israel-American quartet? Read the rest of this entry »

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Is Malaysia prepared against the threat of South-east Asia becoming the second front of IS (Islamic State)?

Is Malaysia prepared against the threat of South-east Asia becoming the second front of IS (Islamic State)?

A visitor from Mars would not think so, as Malaysians seem to be distracted in the past week by the hitherto unheard-of issue of LTTE revival, with the arrest of Malaysians for involvement in suspected revival of the LTTE, as old photographs and videos – some of which dating back a decade ago – are being recycled on the Internet to create a “siege” mentality and to provide so-called proof of the revival of the defunct LTTE.

In 2012, the then former Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, contributed US$1 million to Sri Lanka Tamils for relief as a result of their displacement. Is this now to be construed as support for the Tamil Tigers?

Worldwide, attention is focussing on what is going to happen in the Syrian prisons since the Islamic State’s self-declared caliphate collapsed earlier this year.

The Syrian jails are packed with about 12,000 jihadist fighters, with about 65 from Malaysia and “several hundred” from Indonesia, which do not include their displaced wives and children.

Will these jihadists return home undetected and will they recruit new members and launch attacks?

We must heed the warning of experts of international terrorism, two of whom recently warned:

“Southeast Asia may be the newest breeding ground for militant Islam.

“Deeply interconnected but hard to rule, the island-studded region lends itself to unconventional warfare.

“And since at least 2018, when it became increasingly difficult to travel to Iraq and Syria, foreign fighters from the region and farther abroad have flocked to the Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia because of these countries’ growing reputation as emerging fronts for global jihad.

“The violence perpetrated by pro-ISIS groups in this region has been episodic and uncoordinated, but the underlying trend is clear—ISIS has shifted away from its initial concern with sovereignty over land and people, moving, in the process, toward a decentralized, global insurgency model.”

Malaysia must not be caught unguarded.

(Media Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Kuala Lumpur on Friday, October 18, 2019)

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Call on UM Vice Chancellor to withdraw the university’s police report and to stop targeting student activists for their protests but to address them

The University of Malaya Vice Chancellor Datuk Abdul Rahim Hashim should withdraw the University’s police report and stop targeting student activists for their protests but to address them.

The Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad has upheld the right of students to demonstrate, but disagree that a convocation ceremony was the right time and place to carry out the action. He further declared that the government had no intention of interfering in the matter.

It is in this spirit that the protest at the university’s graduation ceremony and other related matters should be addressed – not in a high-handed and vengeful light which would put the University of Malaya in more adverse light. Read the rest of this entry »

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Patriotic Malaysians must reject the post-14GE Siren Song which can only end up in Malaysia becoming a failed, rogue and kleptocratic state but which is becoming stronger and more brazen because of desperation

The Siren Song sung after the historic May 9, 2018 decision in the 14th General Election is becoming louder and more brazen because of desperation.

Patriotic Malaysians must reject this Siren Song for it can only end up in Malaysia becoming a failed, rogue and kleptocratic state.

The whole purpose of this Siren Song is not to compete with Pakatan Harapan government to make Malaysia a top world-class nation of unity, justice, freedom, excellence and integrity and to show the world that Malaysia is a success story from the Alliance of Civilisations and not a basket-case of a failure from the Clash of Civilisations, but to destroy the Pakatan Harapan Government, even if the price is to usher in an era of division and instability and to destroy the Malaysian nation altogether.

Immediately after the 14th General Election, these conspirators had hoped that Pakatan Harapan Government would disintegrate and implode from internal contradictions because it was an untested coalition of four political parties – DAP, PKR, Bersatu and Amanah.

When this did not take place, the decision was taken to launch an untrammelled campaign of lies, fake news and hate speech to destabilise the country and incite inter-racial and inter-religious polarisation and conflict, and this is why Malaysia has suddenly become a major test-case in the world as to whether a multi-racial, multi-lingual, multi-religious and multi-cultural nation like Malaysia can survive the existential threat posed by fake news and hate speech.
Read the rest of this entry »

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Parliament must play its role to achieve the Pakatan Harapan promise to reset nation-building policies in keeping with the Merdeka Proclamation that Malaysia “shall be forever a sovereign democratic and independent state founded upon the principles of liberty and justice and ever seeking the welfare and happiness of its people”

Parliament must play its role to achieve the Pakatan Harapan promise to reset nation-building policies in keeping with the Merdeka Proclamation that Malaysia “shall be forever a sovereign democratic and independent state founded upon the principles of liberty and justice and ever seeking the welfare and happiness of its people”.

Let me read excerpts from Buku Harapan:

“We promise hope for all citizens, regardless of race and religion. We will stop the rot in key national institutions and we will return the rule of law by ensuring the independence and integrity of important government agencies.

“We will cleanse Malaysia from corruption, malfeasance and kleptocracy, and at the same time drive a sustainable economic growth so that the benefits can be shared by all, not just by a few people in power.

“We offer leaders who are clean and committed to cleaning up this country from the rot, and leaders who are committed to helping people of all backgrounds.”

The Buku Harapan highlights the five pillar-promises, viz:

– Reduce the people’s burden;
– Institutional and political reforms;
– Spur sustainable and equitable economic growth;
– Return Sabah and Sarawak to the status accorded in Malaysia Agreement 1963; and
– Create a Malaysia that is inclusive, moderate and respected globally.

In the agenda on institutional and political reforms, the Buku Harapan stressed that “the check and balance mechanism created by our forefathers no longer function effectively” and pledged to restore confidence in the country’s institutions and redeem the dignity of the administration in a series of institutional and political reforms. Read the rest of this entry »

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DAP supports PAS proposal for a White Paper on LTTE and suggests that the White Paper should cover the entire spectrum of the problem of terrorism faced by Malaysia

DAP supports PAS proposal for a White Paper on LTTE in Parliament and suggests that that the White Paper should cover the entire spectrum of the problem of terrorism faced by Malaysia.

It was been reported that the four Gulf states, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, dubbed the “anti-terror quarter”, had added the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS) on their terror lists.

As the leader of a Malaysian opposition party is a vice president of IUMS, this is also a matter which should be addressed by the White Paper on Terrrorism.

(Media Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Parliament on Monday, Oct. 14, 2019)

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Former IGP provides light but shocking relief to a dark and sombre subject of the upsurge of lies, fake news and hate speech to destroy Malaysia by polarising inter-racial and inter-religious relations and conflict

Former Inspector General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan has provided light but shocking relief to a dark and sombre subject of the upsurge of lies, fake news and hate speech to destroy Malaysia by polarising inter-racial and inter-religious relations and conflict.

Yesterday, Malaysians on the cyberspace were tickled no end by the episode of the former IGP trying to defend the impossible when Musa tried to justify sharing and believing an article from a satirical news website on terrorist Osama Bin Laden and the United States’ Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), entitiled “CIA Issues Posthumous Apology After New Evidence Clears Osama Bin Laden Of Involvement In 9/11 Attacks”.

Despite repeated attempts by Twitter users to point out the farcical nature of the article by the websiteThe Onion, which said the CIA made a posthumous apology to Bin Laden in light of new evidence which cleared him of involvement in the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York City, Musa remained adamant.

Musa said in an early response: “If the news is not true, the US government must deny it.” Read the rest of this entry »

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DAP condemns terrorism in any form but wants the police to honour the spirit of an “accountable and transparent government” and not to have any “Deep State” mentality reflecting the past kleptocratic government

DAP mengutuk keras sebarang bentuk keganasan dan pada masa yang sama mahu melihat pihak Polis menghormati semangat “kerajaan yang bertanggungjawab dan telus” dan tidak mewarisi mentaliti lama pemerintahan lepas

Saya baharu sahaja melawat keluarga dua ADUN DAP — ADUN Seremban Jaya P Gunasekaran dan ADUN Gadek G Saminathan yang juga merupakan seorang Exco — yang ditahan untuk siasatan pada hari Khamis lepas dibawah SOSMA atas dakwaan kaitan dengan Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) di Seremban dan Durian Tunggal pagi ini.

DAP mengutuk keras sebarang bentuk keganasan dan pada masa yang sama mahu melihat pihak Polis menghormati semangat “kerajaan yang bertanggungjawab dan telus” seperti yang ditekankan oleh Kerajaan Pakatan Harapan selepas keputusan bersejarah 9 Mei 2018 dan tidak mewarisi mentaliti lama pemerintahan kleptokratik yang lepas.

Di bawah pemerintahan yang lepas, definisi ancaman kepada keselamatan negara bermaksud sebarang ancaman terhadap Perdana Menteri semasa atau pun parti politik yang sedang berkuasa yang tidak berkaitan sama sekali dengan keselamatan dalam negara, seperti cubaan untuk memulihkan nama baik dan maruah negara dengan pendedahan skandal 1MDB yang telah mencemarkan nama negara di peringkat dunia sebagai sebuah kleptokrasi global.

Kerana inilah bekas Timbalan Pengerusi UMNO Batu Kawan, Khairuddin Abu Hassan ditahan di bawah SOSMA pada tahun 2015 dan SOSMA digunakan pada tahun 2016 untuk menahan 15 orang pemimpin pembangkang dan aktivis sivil di masa itu — termasuklah Maria Chin Abdullah yang merupakan Pengerusi Bersih ketika itu dan kini Ahli Parlimen untuk Petaling Jaya — atas hubungan himpunan Bersih 5 pada 19 November 2016.

Era di mana isu keselamatan dalam negara menjadi tanggungjawab mutlak pihak Polis sudah pun tamat, kini, isu keselamatan dalam negara sepatutnya menjadi tanggungjawab bersama semua rakyat Malaysia yang patriotik. Read the rest of this entry »

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Call for the immediate release of Gunasekaran and Saminathan and the other five detained for suspected attempt to revive the LTTE or they should be charged in court to afford them a chance to defend themselves

Seruan untuk pembebasan segera Gunasekaran dan Saminathan serta lima yang lain yang ditahan kerana disyaki cuba untuk menghidupkan semula LTTE harus dibebaskan segera atau didakwa di mahkamah supaya mereka mempunyai peluang untuk membela diri

Seperti yang ditegaskan oleh 16 Ahli Parlimen dan ADUN dari Pakatan Harapan dalam satu kenyataan bersama semalam berhubung penahanan dua ADUN DAP dan lima yang lain oleh pihak polis atas dakwaan mereka mempunyai kaitan dengan LTTE adalah di luar pemahaman, kerana LTTE sebagai sebuah gerakan pembebasan Tamil telahpun terhapus di Sri Lanka selepas berakhirnya perang saudara yang berlarutan selama 26 tahun pada tahun 2009, di mana ketua LTTE Vellupillai Prabhakaran terbunuh.

Lebih daripada 10 tahun sudah berlalu dan amatlah tidak masuk akal untuk membayangkan kebangkitan semula LTTE dari Malaysia, apatah lagi membabitkan pemimpin-pemimpin DAP.

Selama 53 tahun, DAP komited terhadap perjuangan politik yang aman dan demokratik dalam membawa perubahan, sekaligus menolak sebarang bentuk keganasan – apatah lagi terorisme.

Saya sendiri pernah ditahan mengikut Akta Keselamatan Dalam Negeri (ISA) yang sudah dihapuskan atas dakwaan menganggu-gugat keselamatan negara, dan amatlah penting, terutamanya sejak perubahan kerajaan pada 9 Mei 2018 yang lalu, untuk strategi dan pemikiran polis berhubung soal perbezaan pendapat yang sah dan apa yang dimaksudkan sebagai ancaman kepada keselamatan negara, perlu melalui berubah dengan sewajarnya.

Ini antara sebab mengapa Pakatan Harapan berjanji dalam Manifesto Pilihan Raya Umum ke-14 lalu untuk menghapuskan akta-akta yang menindas, terutamanya peruntukan yang bersifat drakonian dalam Akta SOSMA 2012. Read the rest of this entry »

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Dewan Rakyat’s second Repeal of Anti-Fake News Act – a fake anti-fake news act as it was really a “Protect Najib’s 1MDB Scandal Act” – paves the way for the nation to fully address the grave problem of fake news and hate speech from destroying plural Malaysia

Dewan Rakyat’s second repeal of the Anti-Fake News Act – a fake anti-fake news act as it was really a “Protect Najib’s 1MDB Scandal Act” – paves the way for the nation to fully address the grave problem of fake news and hate speech from destroying plural Malaysia.

This is what Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2018 has to say about the Anti-Fake News Act which was passed on the eve of the 14th General Election and repealed for the second time by the Dewan Rakyat without having to get any more approval by the Dewan Negara:

“No one was under any illusions – not even the then government – that the reason for the law wasn’t essentially political.

“As media academic Gayathry Venkiteswaran has put it: ‘ For most observers, the obvious reason behind this rushed law is to keep the scandalous 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) wealth fund and other financial misappropriations out of the electorate’s focus. This is a punitive law that fails to provide any clarity on the meaning or parameters of ‘fake news’, but criminalises a wide array of speech online and offline’.”

With the fake anti-fake news legislation out of the way, the country should now fully focus on the dangers not only to democracy but the existential threat to plural Malaysia posed by fake news and hate speech specially those designed to incite inter-racial and inter-religious polarisation and conflict, even conflagration. Read the rest of this entry »

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Fake News can not only destroy Malaysia, it can destroy the world as it has been described as the third existential threat to humanity apart from nuclear warfare and climate change

A few days ago, Sunday Observer of the United Kingdom carried a report entitled “Will fake news wreck the coming general election?” which shows the ubiquity of the problem of fake news in the world.

In fact, in the past two years, one nation after another has been wrestling with the problem and danger posed by fake news.

Indonesia ’s riots in May served as a warning to all democracies with polarised electorates, high social media penetration and institutions labouring under the strain of populist politics.

Indonesia’s unrest was the first time in a democracy that social media-fuelled fake news and disinformation led to election riots.

But what made fake news particularly incendiary and combustible in Malaysia is the country’s diversity of races, languages, religions and cultures resulting in fake news and hate speech designed to incite inter-racial and inter-religious polarisation and conflict doubly explosive and destructive.

Fake news and hate speech can not only destroy plural Malaysia, they can destroy the world. Read the rest of this entry »

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Asyraf’s lies and hate speeches are the real threats to Malay and Malaysian dignity and the reasons why strong corrective action are necessary and imperative to prevent fake news and hate speech to incite inter-racial and inter-religious polarisation from destroying Malaysia

Pembohongan dan ucapan kebencian daripada Asyraf adalah satu ancaman terhadap maruah orang Melayu dan rakyat Malaysia dan menjadi satu sebab perlunya untuk satu tindakan yang tegas untuk mengekang berita palsu dan ucapan kebencian — yang menghasut polarisasi antara kaum dan agama — daripada terus memusnahkan Malaysia

Bekas Presiden Majlis Peguam Malaysia, Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan telah mendedahkan bahawa kenyataan Ketua Pemuda UMNO berkenaan “10 alasan kenapa Perdana Menteri Dr Mahathir wajar singkirkan DAP dan PKR” gagal untuk melepasi ujian fakta kerana tidak dapat disokong dengan sebarang bukti sokongan. Namun begitu, perkara ini tidak menghentikan penyebaran berterusan berita palsu dan ucapan kebencian yang bertujuan untuk menghasut polarisasi antara kaum dan agama dalam Malaysia pasca PRU-14.

Ambiga berkata beliau mempunyai 50 alasan mengapa UMNO tidak perlu kembali berkuasa. Kini alasan itu bertambah kepada 51.

Penyebaran penipuan, berita palsu dan ucapan kebencian untuk menghasut polarisasi dan konflik antara kaum dan agama kelihatan seperti sudah menjadi satu-satunya strategi pihak Pembangkang untuk melawan usaha Pakatan Harapan untuk dalam menjayakan sebuah Malaysia Baharu yang menjadi negara terulung berteraskan perpaduan, keadilan, kebebasan, kecemerlangan dan integriti.

Saya pernah berharap Kongres Maruah Melayu dapat menjadi perintis untuk satu kempen yang melibatkan semua rakyat Malaysia untuk mencapai Zaman Kegemilangan Malaysia sebagai negara terulung berteraskan perpaduan, keadilan, kebebasan, kecemerlangan dan integriti serta membuktikan kepada dunia bahawa Malaysia adalah kisah kejayaan pertemuan empat tamadun besar dunia – Melayu / Islam, Cina, India dan Barat – bukannya menjadi gagal kerana Konflik Peradaban.

Harapan ini ternyata silap. Read the rest of this entry »

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