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In the spirit of "Hope springs eternal", DAP calls on Mahathir to intervene to ask the police to retract all proceedings against malaysiakini as the police raid on the online news site had violated the MSC Bill of Guarantees of No Internet Censorship which he had pledged to the leading IT nations and corporations on behalf of the Malaysian Government Media Comment by Lim Kit Siang (Petaling Jaya, Wednesday): In the spirit of "Hope springs eternal", DAP calls on the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad to intervene to ask the police to retract all proceedings against malaysiakini as the police raid on the online news site had violated the MSC Bill of Guarantees of No Internet Censorship which he had pledged to the leading IT nations and corporations on behalf of the Malaysian Government. This was my instant reaction and hope when I read the malaysiakini report that the Prime Minister's Office requested a copy of the letter published by malaysiakini which had led Umno Youth to lodge a police report claiming its content was seditious. Mahathir, who was overseas during the police raid on malaysiakini, had received two protest letters from international media organisations which criticised the police raid on malaysiakini. Although the chances are very slim, I would still urge Mahathir to intervene not only to show a more mellowed political personality and philosophy, but even more important, for the sake of the Multimedia Super Corridor as at stake is not only his word which must be his bond but the very credibility of the entire MSC project and Malaysia's IT programme. Nobody can run away from the brutal fact that the manner of the police crackdown on malaysiakini had made nonsense of the MSC Bill of Guarantees of no Internet censorship - as how can the government claim that there is no Internet censorship when the police can remove all the 19 computers of malaysiakini which could have no conceivable relationship to the police investigations, as to effectively shut down its operations? There was in fact no need for the police to remove any single computer, as malaysiakini had not disputed the fact that it had published the letter which was the subject of the UMNO Youth police report. If Mahathir could ask the police to abide by the MSC Bill of Guarantees of No Internet Censorship, then there is still hope that all is not lost under the Barisan Nasional government to protect and promote human rights, in particular freedom of speech, expression and opinion and a free Internet press. (29/1/2003) * Lim Kit Siang, DAP National Chairman