AUG 16 — These days, the Malaysian political arena is simply amusing and hard to believe, but without a doubt it is filled with people making silly statements, Dr Mahathir Mohamad included. Although I promised myself that I would reduce my writing of comments due to work pressure, I cannot help but to pick a bone with the former prime minister with the hope that he could be shaken out of his big ego.

In a recent article in Malaysiakini, Dr Mahathir had said that “Malaysians will have to get used to the apparent increase in killings on the streets as it is the ‘price of more freedom’.”

Let me go straight to the point.

Human Rights and Freedom

Human rights and freedom is an age-old cause, where people like Abraham Lincoln had fought against human slavery and later became the president of a new America. Freedom, in this case, is freedom from slavery; but in today’s context, we are talking about freedom from political persecution and oppression. We are talking about the rights of the individual as a person and a fellow human being.

For example, an Indonesian maid is seared with a hot iron because she is accused of stealing the employer’s jewellery. Human rights activists such as Irene Fernandes of Tenaganita would speak up on behalf of the maid, who may suffer in silence due to the lack of courage to speak up. The same with the way how our prison system is set up based on the insights that we gained from the public domain. Or, the innocent young Penan girls who are being raped by loggers, who tell the world that they provide transport for the children as a corporate social responsibility.

Freedom is also freedom of speech. Because the minority groups have been suffering in silence, there needs to be freedom of speech for them to voice out their grievances and protect their basic human rights. It is the role of the media to provide such an avenue for them to speak up, and clamping down on freedom of the press is a taboo for any administration. Dr Mahathir should realise his own mistake after 22 years as a prime minister, that the country loves Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi more than him. Respect begets respect.

Treating a fellow human being, whether criminal or innocent, in a less than humane manner is wrong in the eyes of God, because we are all equal before this Ultimate Judge; therefore, Dr Mahathir, who will soon be standing before the Judge Himself should know this and learn to respect fellow human beings, whether it is his political opponent or his cronies.

Dr Mahathir’s iron fist on Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim reminds me of the Old Shylock in “Merchant of Venice” who demanded a pound of the merchant’s flesh. The good judge knew the wickedness of the old Jew. Eventually, after granting Shylock his demand, he managed to throw the old Jew into the dungeon. “Unless you can assure me that after taking one pound of flesh from the defendant, you shall not shed even one ounce of his blood, you can have his flesh; but if you shed even one ounce of his blood, I shall have you thrown into the dungeon.” God is the Ultimate Judge who is wise and powerful.

In the way he had hit out at Abdullah and Anwar, I can tell that Dr Mahathir is no respecter of human beings — and certainly will not enter into history as one who fights for human rights unless it is politically expedient for him.

Under communism and Zionism, people lose their rights to the state and they are no longer considered as individuals but as either assets or liabilities to the state. This is why the Communists and the Zionists would shoot anyone who holds a different ideology, because under these two regimes, human rights and freedom no longer exists. This is how an ordinary Malaysian like me sees “freedom” and human rights.

Criminal Shooting

On the other hand, the shootings that we see happening in the country are nothing but criminal acts done by people who do not respect human rights or are fighting against corruption. When they don’t like you, they just point the gun at you, Dr Mahathir, and they will shoot mercilessly! So far, Tun Musa Hitam, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah and even Anwar have not done to you. That’s why you cannot understand that shooting is criminal in nature — in Malaysia or anywhere in the world.

Or, if the assassins are hired by political rivals within Umno Baru, and they enter into a party leader’s home, they may just open fire at him in what may appear to be a robbery case. It is part of a political game after all, to create fear within the ranks so that everyone toes the line of the big boss.

Criminals are criminals whether they are robbers, burglars or political assassins. This is what no one would debate about — yes, throw them behind bars! There are no qualms about it, but this should be done without denying them the opportunity to defend themselves in case they have been falsely accused for physical assault, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi! This is why the Malaysian public basically wanted the Emergency Ordinance to be abolished, but not to allow the criminals to roam freely.

Human rights activists would no doubt still say, “Yes, the crime is committed, but the criminal deserves to be treated as human beings!”, but I doubt anyone would condone criminal shooting even if it was a dog or a cat!

Over and again, the public has spoken out loud and clear. We want the police to step up their anti-crime campaign and more police personnel, instead of foreigners dressed as our security guards, should be deployed to go after the bad hats. Intelligence should be accumulated to prosecute the underworld bosses, not the politicians who hold a different ideology or the resort manager or the dog trainer who did something worth only a smack on the wrist!

Doesn’t Gel

For Dr Mahathir to try to link both the freedom and criminal shootings is therefore an over-simplistic statement that Malaysians can no longer tolerate. The two subjects are a world apart, and one cannot see how the former prime minister could come out with such a statement.

This is why public pressure is mounting on the government to set up the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) to address corruption and other malpractices and abuse of power within the police force. This will help to protect the image of the Royal Malaysian Police force, when the bad hats are weeded out. Failure of Abdullah’s government to set up the IPCMC in 2005 cost him a great deal of voters’ support in 2008, after people had rallied behind him in the 2004 Elections.

It certainly has cost Najib Razak a lot, looking at the GE13 results. Resistance by certain quarters within the Royal Malaysian Police also does not augur well with the public. Nor is the public happy with the way how our politicians interfere with the country’s law enforcers, whose job is firstly to protect the civilians and secondly to go after the criminals on the streets. If both are done, it does not take much convincing for the public to give their thumbs-up to the police and the government.

This is also one reason why the public want more police personnel to be deployed into crime prevention, instead of handling administrative tasks. By having only a small percentage of its force involved in patrolling, we are putting the lives of our boys in blue at high risk. The Special Branch appears to be focused on issues that bring bad tastes to the BN government, like calling, for example, the head of Tindak Malaysia for questioning instead of sending their men to go after the human traffickers or the drug pushers, who are likely to be behind the recent spate of shootings.

As a former prime minister, Dr Mahathir should be addressing the issue of criminal shooting as a serious issue that will adversely affect the people’s confidence in the present government, instead of trying to suggest that it has to do with “more freedom” or the removal of Emergency Ordinance. In the first place, the reason why guns are available locally despite it being illegal to possess firearms is because of corruption within certain quarters not because we have liberalised the laws that allow arms possession.

In my opinion, Dr Mahathir is doing more harm to the BN’s government than the Abdullah book. One drives us up the wall, while the other openly discusses the problems within Umno Baru, the creation of Dr Mahathir, for the sake of bringing improvement.

Wake up, Dr Mahathir!

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malay Mail Online.