As Malaysia’s Covid-19 situation gradually improves, Muhyiddin’s government has become increasingly restless by taking a series of actions aimed at suppressing dissent and trampling freedom of expression.
Just this week alone, former Deputy Women, Family and Community Development Minister Hannah Yeoh as well as human rights lawyer and activist Siti Kassim were called up by the police for questioning. Hannah Yeoh was called up over her anti-child marriage remark while Siti Kassim was called up likely over a social media post she made about PAS.
Besides, Attorney-General Idrus Harun has filed an ex-parte application to initiate contempt of court proceedings against Malaysiakini and its editor-in-chief Steven Gan over readers’ comments in Malaysiakini’s comment section. Coincidentally, former Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman also said that he is being investigated by the police under the Sedition Act 1948, following an interview he gave to Al Jazeera on March 6 in which he criticised prime minister Muhyddin and the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government.
Clearly, the purpose behind the backdoor government’s series of actions that targeted the civil society, media and opposition was to create white terror that deters people from speaking up.
Since the change of government in 2018, the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government had put substantial efforts into safeguarding the freedom of expression enshrined in the Constitution. Within the short two years, PH was willing to listen to public opinion and allowed civil organizations, social activists and even political opponents to criticize the government in order to improve its governance. According to The Democracy Index 2019 released by the UK-based Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), Malaysia is ranked 43rd, jumping up 9 places from 52nd in 2018. It has jumped up 16 places when compared with the 59th position in 2017 under the Barisan Nasional (BN) regime.
In addition, the BN regime was notorious in suppressing freedom of expression and press freedom for 60 years, evident by persistently low press freedom rankings. After PH formed the government in 2018, Malaysia’s position in the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) press freedom ranking rose rapidly from 145th in 2018 to 123rd in 2019 and, in 2020, climbed up 22 rungs again to be ranked 101st.
Various achievements have proven that the PH government had been constantly improving and expanding freedom of expression for all citizens, while encouraging more public supervision of government and active participation in various social and national issues in order to build the country’s future together.
Regrettably, in order to stabilize its crisis-ridden regime, Muhyiddin’s government has abused state apparatus to investigate remarks made by social activists, media and opposition members, one after another. Such actions taken by the PN government that has been in power for only several months to suppress dissent and freedom of expression have completely brought PH government’s efforts of improving freedom of expression and press freedom to naught.
As a backdoor government formed by different factions through seizure of power, the PN government has been widely criticized due to lack of legitimacy.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Muhyiddin also faced the shaky situation whereby strong allies such as UMNO and PAS are lurking and waiting for opportunities. He might have therefore chosen to suppress freedom of speech and tried to create white terror in order to achieve the purposes of silencing dissent and stabilizing the regime.
It is only by replacing the PN government can we put a halt to abuse of power by the Muhyiddin’s government that suppresses freedom of speech and press freedom.
Also, only the PH government is able to protect the freedom of speech practised by the civil society, to encourage citizens to freely express their opinions, and at the same time to allow media as the fourth pillar of democracy to report freely without interference in order to ensure effective checks and balances.