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Malaysia: Mahathir Using Colonial Tools To Curb Opponents
by Kazi Mahmood for IslamOnline
KUALA LUMPUR, March 14 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A press statement released by opposition political parties in Malaysia on Wednesday lambasted Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad for using colonial tools to curb his opponents.
Raja Petra Kamarudin, a member of the National Justice Party (NJP) who was arrested last week and had his computer confiscated as evidence by police said that it was ironic that Mahathir "would use the very laws of the colonialists he so despises and warns Malaysians to be wary of."
"The big bad Mat Salleh [white men] is bent on taking over our country warns the Prime Minister. Yet it is their laws he uses against his own people," Raja Kamarudin said.
The writer of the popular book entitled "When time stood still" depicting the downfall of Anwar Ibrahim and the current political spectrum in Malaysia added, "The bad colonialists no longer use this law. They have, in fact, stopped being colonialists long ago.
"But Mahathir very snuggly slips into the role of the long gone colonialist and imprisons his own people worse than the colonialists ever could have."
Raja Kamarudin was commenting on the arrest of NJP Youth chief Mohamad Ezam Mohamad Nor who has been charged over an alleged statement he made on Tuesday stating the government should be toppled using street protests.
Ezam Nor, in Sessions Court, denied that he uttered seditious words to Utusan Malaysia, a daily pro-government newspaper in Malaysia.
Nor, 34, is alleged to have admitted to having said he would organize demonstrations every day and not every week, that the street demonstrations would only stop when the present leader of the government has been toppled and that the toppling of governments through street demonstrations is a common practice, and need not be feared.
The charges also state that part of his words, which were published in the Mingguan Malaysia newspaper March 4, incited people to use methods that went against the provisions of the Federal Constitution to change the government.
The opposition insists that the arrest of the youth leader and his subsequent trial in August of this year is part of a bid by the ruling National Front (NF) coalition to rid the Alternative Front (AF) opposition force of potential candidates for the 2004 elections.
In Malaysia, any one charged and fined more than RM2000, or has spent more than one year in jail, is not eligible to be a candidate in general elections.
One impact of Nor's jailing could result in a surge of popularity for opposition forces.
In Kota Bharu, the capital of the northern state of Kelantan, currently controlled by the Party Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS), a crowd of 50,000 people on Sunday gathered to protest the current state of corruption in Malaysia.
"Kota Bharu was part of a nationwide road show to distribute leaflets to as many Malaysians as possible informing them of the corrupt maneuvers of Mahathir's government," said an opposition leader.
"Of particular concern were the recent bailouts of crony companies. Calling for this road show was what got Ezam into trouble in the first place. Ezam's arrest did not dampen the effort. If at all, it heightened it," the NJP noted.
A statement from the NJP said that if arresting Nor was meant to quell dissent, it failed. "It just made the determination stronger," the party said after the Kelantan gathering.
The NJP said Mahathir will have to face the music, and it will be soon.
"The resolve of the people will ensure he does. The government is in trouble. The ruling party knows why. And they know Mahathir is the cause," wrote the NJP.
"They also know the only way out is for Mahathir to go. And already there is an internal push within UMNO to get Mahathir out."
"Reformasi is no longer confined to the streets of Malaysia. Reformasi is no longer just an opposition thing. Reformasi now exists in UMNO as well - and they know it would be the only way to save UMNO from extinction," the letter to the press added.
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