Let me tell Najib that his failure to keep his pledge to repeal the Sedition Act and with the political prosecution of oppositionists, he will definitely go down in history as a pseudo reformist.

Press Statement by M Kula, DAP National Vice Chairman and MP for Ipoh Barat in Ipoh on 27^th October, 2014

Let me tell Najib that his failure to keep his pledge to repeal the Sedition Act and with the political prosecution of oppositionists, he will definitely go down in history as a pseudo reformist.

Today is the 27^th anniversary of the infamous Operasi Lalang. On October 27, 1987, more than 100 persons comprising politicians, educationists, activists, intellectuals were detained under the draconian Internal Security Act. 

It was a day of darkness in Malaysian history. 

It was also the worst abuse of the Act and the crackdown also saw the  he revoking of the publishing licenses of two dailies, The Star and Sin Chew Jit Poh and two weeklies, The Sunday Star and the Watan.

Today, Tun Mahathir who was responsible for the crackdown has long retired but the government still owes those detained an apology.

Datuk Seri Najib has started his premiership six years ago with talk of 1 Malaysia and moderation concepts as well as promises of political reforms, but what we see today is not what he has promised.

Despite his talk about 1 Malaysia concept and the value of moderation, he is not able to walk his talk and has remained silent when extremists continue to play with racial and religious fires.

Although the draconian Internal Security Act has been repealed, a new political crack down in the form of sedition blitz against government critics has taken place. 

Najib has promised to repeal the 1948 Sedition Act in 2012 but till today, he has yet to fulfil his pledge. Worse, the Act has become the new weapon to stifle political dissent and silence government critics. 

Many opposition lawmakers have faced court prosecution, yet Perkasa president Ibrahim Ali who has threatened to burn the Bibles has not been charged. 

De facto Minister Nancy Sukri’s explanation that Ibrahim was merely defending Islam met with strong and massive criticism, yet the Prime Minister has remained silent. .

Let me tell Najib that his failure to keep his pledge to repeal the Sedition Act and with the political prosecution  of oppositionists, he will definitely go down in history as a pseudo reformist.

I wish to remind Najib that the public do not have short memories and still remember his 2012 challenge to the opposition. 

In 2012, when commenting on the Bersih 3.0 sit in protest which attracted 200, 000 participants, Najib had said:-

“To these people, I challenge them to fight' at the ballot box. If you are anak jantan (man), let us fight there."

So I wish to challenge the Prime Minister to stop the political persecution of opposition lawmakers and fight the opposition fair and square at the next general election.