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Press Statement

by Lim Guan Eng

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(Petaling Jaya, Wednesday): Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is wrong to state that the people still want the ISA and that his government will use ISA to prevent further street demonstrators such the two massive rallies organized this month by the coalition for free and clean elections, Bersih and Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf). DAP challenges the Prime Minister to hold a public referendum to determine whether Malaysians support retaining the ISA or its removal as part of democratization to speed up economic development and socio-economic justice.

Abdullah appears to confuse support for BN and himself with support of the ISA. As a mature political leader, Abdullah should know that support for a government or political party can never be decided solely by a single issue. Whilst the people may support BN, there is no doubt that there is no such support for the ISA. He should test his confidence that the people support the ISA by holding a public referendum.

Freedom of speech and assembly is a fundamental human right and to curb it by using the Sedition Act and the ISA, which allows for detention without trial, shows that these are weapons against political opponents and not to maintain peace or harmony. Demonstrations held peacefully are not considered unlawful by the United Nations and there have been no violent incidents in these two demonstrations except when the police acted with excessive brutality against peaceful demonstrations.

Massive demonstrations held in the last two weeks highlight the failure of the BN government to listen to the people’s voices. As the mass media is controlled by the government, there is no avenue of expression and the people’s grievances to be heard and addressed. When the press and the BN government considers the poor, dispossessed and deprived invisible, the only option left is to gather peacefully to highlight their plight. If demonstrations are wrong, why is there double-standards that when UMNO Youth and its Deputy President Khairy Jamaluddin hold demonstrations against the United States, neither action is taken nor criticism made?

There are real economic problems faced by the poor regardless of race but especially acute amongst the Indian community who suffer most from the discriminatory effects of the quota-based New Economic Policy (NEP). The United Nations Human Development Report consistently list Malaysians as suffering the worst income inequality between the rich and poor in South-East Asia. This is conceded by the Ninth Malaysian Plan (9MP) which showed the share of income of the bottom 40% of the population declined from 14.5% in 1990 to 13.5% in 2004 whilst the share of the top 20% of the population increased from 50% in 1990 to 51.2% in 2004.

Only through democratic reforms such as institutionalizing rules-based governance, accountability, transparency, clean and fair elections as well as a free press, can we speed up economic development and socio-economic justice to address the income disparity between the rich and poor. If Abdullah continues to be in a state of denial at the demands to be heard from the people, then Malaysians can see that Abdullah is not relying on popular support but desperate measures and harsh security laws such as the ISA and Sedition to stay in power.