17 July 2007

YAB Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi,

Perdana Menteri Malaysia,

Jabatan Perdana Menteri Malaysia,

Blok Utama, Bangunan Perdana Putra,

Pusat Pentadbiran Kerajaan Persekutuan,

62502 Putrajaya. MALAYSIA.                                                          DENGAN TANGAN

Stopping the arrogant abuse of power by sacking Deputy Education Minister Datuk Noh Omar if he refuses to apologise to all Malaysians for his rude behaviour towards DAP Selangor Chair Ean Yong Hian Wah and unconditionally release Nathaniel Tan to prevent expose of corruption be classified as an official secret

At a time when the country is celebrating our 50th Merdeka anniversary, the country’s leaders should discard feudalistic mentality and adopt democratic practices that accords proper respect to human dignity and the people, as the vested and real owners of our beloved nation. Failure to do so would demonstrate the lack of maturity in democratic and spiritual development essential towards overcoming the challenges of globalization and contrary to the current world-wide trend of freedom and choice.

We hope that YAB can arrest this alarming trend as highlighted by two incidents taken against young Malaysian leaders.

One, Deputy Education Minister Datuk Noh Omar gangsterish behadviour towards DAP Selangor Chair Ean Yong Hian Wah when Ean Yong led a DAP delegation to present a memo to him last Thursday on the case of a 13-year-old female student who had been punched in the face by a male teacher. Noh Omar crumbled the memo and threw the memo presented to him by the delegation and questioned the right of the DAP to take up the case of Lim Nien Nie of SM Raja Lumu, Pandamaran.

Noh Omar publicly lost control of himself by abusing Au Yong and kept pointing his finger rudely at Ean Yong and said that the complaint won’t be accepted if the DAP was involved. The fact that such behaviour by Noh was wrong was clearly shown when the memo thrown away by Noh Omar was quickly picked up by Datuk Noh’s officer.

Clearly such misconduct is unbecoming of a Deputy Minister under any moral, ethical or religious parameters Even Lim Nien Ne’s parents have demanded that Noh Omar apologise to Ean Yong. Noh Omar should understand why the parents complained to the DAP. Lim’s mother, Ng Lee Yong, said she went to DAP only after trying in vain to get help from the Pandamaran MCA. "I went to the MCA service centre but a man there told me it was closed and left without even asking me what the problem was", she said.

Such misconduct by Noh is not new but reminds us that he is a serial offender of bad behaviour. In November 2005, he said that foreigners who do not like the way his officers behave should leave the country. Coming at a time when Malaysia was trying to attract foreign tourists, such comments attracted world-wide condemnation.

Subsequently YAB Prime Minister was compelled to step in by publicly reprimanding Noh Omar and directing him to apologise. Even though Noh Omar apologized, he is clearly neither contrite nor repentant by repeating such loutish behaviour as Deputy Education Minister. Noh is the worst example possible as a role model for good discipline in school. As the head of a committee of discipline in school, such efforts are doomed to failure unless Noh himself repents and mends his ways.

DAP regrets the unprofessional and irresponsible decision of Education Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein in supporting such misconduct by Noh Omar and even hurled baseless racist allegations against DAP leaders for taking up cases involving one community but not of Malays. Hishammuddin asked why the DAP was never bothered about the death a few years back of Mohd Farid Ibrahim, the fourth-former at Sekolah Menengah Agama Dato Kelana Petra Maamor, Ampangan, Seremban who died after being assaulted by a group of Malay seniors at the school hostel.

Hishamuddin is insinuating that DAP only helps non-Malay students but not Malay students. This is a lie as Parliamentary Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang had personally visited the Mohd Farid’s parents in their Seremban home over their son’s murder and was present in court during the murder trial. Where was Hishamuddin then?

Covering up truth and discouraging the expose of corruption scandals by absuing the Official Secrets Act

Two, the arrest of Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) information bureau staff Nathaniel Tan to facilitate investigations under the Official Secrets Act (OSA) for his blog posting in relation to the corruption allegations linked to Deputy Internal Security Minister Datuk Johari Baharom. This is a blatant act of intimidation to cover-up the truth and discourage expose of scandals against BN leaders.

Up to now everyone is puzzled how Tan can be accused of being in possession of documents of Johari’s alleged involvement in corruption that Johari had received RM5.5 million to release several suspected criminals held under the Emergency Ordinance, when there was no such indication in Tan’s blog or by Tan personally. Tan was never involved in receiving or exposing corruption allegations. In fact it is top PKR opposition leaders who had publicly claimed to have such documents and yet no action was taken by police against them.

Any action taken should be in the form of civil suit for defamation, because expose of corruption should not be classified as an official secret. For Johari to misuse his powers by wanting the police to investigate and trace writers spreading lies through websites to prevent kinds of slander about the nation’s leaders from being spread through the Internet is an act of cowardice and vengeance.

DAP urges YAB Prime Minister to immediately release Nathaniel Tan unconditionally from such victimization, which is a clear attempt to still a young voice of conscience and silence the freedom of blogs to air their views on the internet. There is a chilling climate of fear in the blogosphere following his arrest and DAP fears that more bloggers will hide their identity or do it from an overseas server or not blog completely on current affairs to avoid getting into trouble. Such arrests only spell the end of the spring of greater openness and liberal atmosphere promised by YAB Prime Minister when you became Prime Minister on October 1 2003.

We strongly urge that the Prime Minister stop the arrogant abuse of power by sacking Deputy Education Minister Datuk Noh Omar if he refuses to apologise to all Malaysians for his rude behaviour towards DAP Selangor Chair Ean Yong Hian Wah and unconditionally release Nathaniel Tan to prevent expose of corruption be classified as an official secret.

Yours faithfully,

LIM GUAN ENG

SECRETARY-GENERAL

(17/7/2007)