KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 24 — DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng has pledged to continue calling for the restoration of Parliament so that the voices of ordinary Malaysians can be heard.

He said he will do so despite being informed by his lawyer RSN Rayer of police investigations against him for making such a call.

"However I refuse to be silenced and will continue to press for a return to Parliamentary democracy immediately to ensure that a government elected by the people can be restored,” Lim said in a statement.

He also echoed the sentiments of United Nations secretary-general Antonio Guterres, who said on Monday that the world is facing a "pandemic of human rights abuses” as nations use emergency measures to suppress basic freedoms by justifying them as restrictions to battle Covid-19.

"Apart from Myanmar, Malaysia fits the bill with the Proclamation of Emergency suspending Parliament followed by investigation and prosecution against opposition politicians, professional journalists and independent media outlets such as Malaysiakini,” Lim said.

"Even though no countries were mentioned, Guterres described the exact similar situation in Malaysia. Apart from the decline in fundamental freedoms, corruption has deteriorated with Malaysia dropping six rungs to 57th in the latest 2020 Transparency International Corruption Perception Index (TI-CPI).” 

The Bagan MP said such a decline in fundamental freedoms and suspending Parliament is generally accompanied by increased corrupt practices, and that Malaysia’s TI-CPI rankings can therefore be expected to further deteriorate this year.

Guterres was writing to the UK's Guardian newspaper, where he also said the pandemic has become a pretext for authorities in some countries to deploy heavy-handed security responses and emergency measures to crush dissent, criminalise basic freedoms, silence independent reporting and curtail the activities of NGOs.

Yesterday Rayer said Lim had been summoned to Bukit Aman concerning Pakatan Harapan's statement last month which spoke of the Emergency declaration.

The statement on January 21 was jointly issued by Lim together with PKR president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and Amanah president Mohamad Sabu. Lim has promised to provide full cooperation over the investigation.