Will the authorities be as diligent to investigate if a report is lodged that Najib had contravened the Sedition Act for his “717 declaration”?

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Media Statement        
by Lim Kit Siang  
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(Parliament, Tuesday): Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said the government has not made a “special decision” to clamp down on bloggers but advised Malaysians not to break any laws. 

Referring to the police report lodged by Umno Information Chief Tan Sri Muhammad Muhammad Taib against the Malaysia Today news portal, Najib said it was up to the authorities to investigate whether any law had been contravened. 

Najib may be technically right that the government has not made any such decision for a crackdown on bloggers, but clearly the Umno leadership has made such a decision which explains why the report against Malaysia Today is in the name of the Umno Information Chief, one of the topmost Umno leaders. 

When the Umno leadership decides, who dares to say that the government has not decided? 

If Umno has made a decision to crack down on the bloggers, who will believe that the government has not made a similar decision although the non-Umno Cabinet Ministers and leaders may be completely in the dark about the matter? 

When a lowly officer from the Internal Security Ministry Publications Control and Al-Quran Texts Unit can unilaterally and arbitrarily issue a directive to ban media reporting of responses to Najib’s “717 Declaration” which affects only MCA and non-Umno Ministers and leaders, what further proof is needed that on the 50^th Merdeka anniversary of the nation, the Barisan Nasional “power-sharing” concept is at its most attenuated form in the nation’s history! 

After his report against Malaysia Today and its webmaster, Raja Petra Kamaruddin, Muhammad said:  “May be they (Malaysia Today) forget that there are many sensitivities in this country. Such people want to destroy the peace in the country.” 

Will the authorities be as diligent to investigate if a report is lodged that Najib had contravened the Sedition Act for his “717 declaration” that Malaysia is an Islamic state and had never been a secular state, jettisoning the Merdeka social contract which had been upheld by the first three Prime Ministers, Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak and Tun Hussein and trampling on the sensitivities of Malaysians? 

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Dr. Maximus Ongkili, said yesterday that the Parliamentary Select Committee on National Unity and National Service will formulate a code of ethics to stop politicians from using racial issues for political mileage.  Ongkili is chairman of the committee. 

Is Ongkili prepared to propose that the Code should specify examples of racial or sensitive issues which undermine national unity and multi-ethnic relations – such as the highly controversial and divisive “717 Declaration” of Najib? 

This is because Najib’s declaration that Malaysia is an Islamic state driven by Islamic fundamentals and is not and had never been a secular state is not only without constitutional basis but highly sensitive as it flies in the face of the 1957 social contract and the life-works of the first three Prime Ministers, Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak and Tun Hussein Onn to build a secular Malaysia with Islam as the official religion.

(24/7/2007)