KUALA LUMPUR, July 25 — Lim Kit Siang today questioned the Home Ministry’s claim of doubtful and unverified information as among the reasons for the suspension of The Edge Weekly and The Edge Financial Daily, arguing that a different set of rules seem to apply on Utusan Malaysia.

The senior DAP leader said the Umno-owned Malay daily has not had any issues with the authorities despite allegedly publishing “downright lies and falsehoods”, which he claims fits the description of being prejudicial to public order and national interest.

“Why one law for Utusan Malaysia and another law for the Edge publications?” Lim said in a statement.

The Gelang Patah MP claimed it was ironic for Putrajaya to say that the two business papers had been “unfair” to 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) and those in power, when the executive has not been fair to the public by clearing the air on allegations made regarding 1MDB’s dealings.

He said the suspension of the two papers, aside from the decision to block local access to whistle-blower website Sarawak Report and the travel ban on at least one opposition MP, are all signs that the authorities are allegedly undermining the country’s parliamentary democracy.

Lim claimed that any other country that practices parliamentary democracy would have seen a “titanic battle” between Parliament and the executive if the latter even attempts to intimidate or restrict the freedom of movement of MPs by accusing them of engaging in “activities detrimental to parliamentary democracy”.

“Is the Malaysian Parliament so cowed and supine that the Executive can ride roughshod over the most sacred of parliamentary traditions and conventions?” he said.

In a news release yesterday, The Edge Media Group publisher and chief executive Ho Kay Tat announced that the printing permits of the two publications will be suspended for three months starting Monday, with the possibility that the permits will be revoked if they do not comply.

Citing a Home Ministry letter, he said the ministry stated that the two publications’ reporting of 1MDB were “prejudicial or likely to be prejudicial to public order, security or likely to alarm public opinion or is likely to be prejudicial to public and national interest”.

Last Sunday, the MCMC said in a statement that SR was among websites that were blocked on grounds that they can “threaten the country’s stability” with contents that “cannot be verified and is being investigated”, after it received “information and complaints from the public”.

On Wednesday, Immigration officials stopped DAP’s Petaling Jaya-Utara MP Tony Pua from boarding a flight to Yogyakarta, Indonesia at Kuala Lumpur’s budget carrier terminal.

Shortly after, PKR’s Pandan MP Rafizi Ramli said he has also been flagged, basing it on checks on the Immigration Department’s website.