Challenge the Prime Minister to hold a public referendum to determine whether Malaysians support retaining the Internal Security Act (ISA) or its removal as part of democratization to speed up economic development and socio-economic justice
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Press Statement
by Lim Guan Eng
_________________
(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.
(28/11/2007)
* Lim Guan
Eng,
Secretary-General of DAP |