KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 21 ― Malaysia’s backsliding democracy and growing religious fundamentalism is being laid bare by neighbouring Indonesia’s blossoming democratic scene and secular politics, the Sydney Morning Herald has said.
In a strongly-worded commentary, the Australian paper drew parallels between the two countries, pointing out that while Indonesia inaugurates “the man that most voters chose to be leader”, Malaysia continues to persecute Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim ― “the man that most voters chose to be leader” over an alleged sodomy charge.
The popular Joko Widodo was recently elected as Indonesia’s seventh president, even as Malaysia continues under the regime of the same party that has ruled it since independence, the paper pointed out.
“The romantic view of Malaysia, is based on a country that hasn't existed for the last ten years,” SMH quoted political analyst Professor James Chin as saying.
PKR secretary-general Rafizi Ramli told SMH that Malaysia has exhibited instances where democracy is palpably regressing.
“While Indonesia is making huge progress, we are rewinding and the democratic space is going back to the Mahathir era of the 1990s,” he said.
Chin pointed out that it is not just an issue of democracy in Malaysia, claiming that politics in the country is being “hijacked” by political Islam.
“They are putting Malay supremacy together with Islamic supremacy,” he said, adding that the government is now trying to regulate and control the behaviour of non-Muslims as well by penalising non-Muslims taking part in the Oktoberfest beer festival here.
This does not happen in Indonesia, Chin said, where the secular state does not impose Islamic standards on other faiths.
SMH pointed out that the extent of Putrajaya’s authoritarianism will be exposed next week when the Federal Court hears Anwar's appeal against a lower court’s decision to overturn his Sodomy II acquittal back in 2012.
“Anwar was the subject of one of the world's most ridiculous political persecutions, an effort by the then prime minister (Tun Dr) Mahathir Mohamad, to ruin him by accusing him of sodomy. And now, a ruling on the sequel: Sodomy II.
“The result scared the government of Najib Razak into reviving its favoured tactic for repressing Anwar: the charge of sodomy. Sodomy 2 had been running for a while, but after the High Court knocked out the latest sodomy charge against the married father of five, the government took its trumped-up case to Malaysia's Court of Appeal,” said the commentary piece.
SMH also pointed out many opposition leaders and activists were being charged and detained under the 1948 Sedition Act, amid growing calls for its repeal.
“The political crackdown is much wider than Anwar. Human Rights Watch has detailed at least 14 cases this year where the government has brought spurious charges against political opponents and activists under the 1948 Sedition Act,” SMH said.
Rafizi told the Australian newspaper that PM Najib now has two options: reform and allow more space for democracy or continue the political crackdown and face a worse backlash from the public.
Putrajaya pledged in 2012 to repeal the Sedition Act and replace it with national harmony laws, but later went on to launch one of the heaviest crackdowns on sedition in the country’s history.
