KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 27 ― Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad demanding the freedom of speech from Datuk Seri Najib Razak is “unacceptable” as the former is the one responsible for creating the repressive environment Malaysia’s media and civil societies currently live in, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) said today.

HRW Asia Director Brad Adams added that criminalisation of dissent in Malaysia became systemic from when Dr Mahathir, the country’s longest-serving former prime minister, was in power.

“Najib in a way is (a) child of Dr Mahathir’s, the tactics are systemic.

“The laws and intervention are on the books, waiting to be used when the time is right. Which is why I poked at Dr Mahathir earlier, he is the father of this and for him to stand up in public and complain that there is a lack of free speech or a lack of democracy is really unacceptable.

“He should just be quiet and he should let other people go to the forefront to discuss these very serious issues,” Adams said during the release of the HRW report titled “Creating a Culture of Fear: the Criminalisation of Peaceful Expression in Malaysia.”

Adams added that while he appreciated Dr Mahathir’s support for the freedom of expression now, it would have been more valuable if he championed those same issues during his 22-year stint as prime minister.

“I’m old enough to remember Mahathir very unfondly and remember how much oppression there was.

“What Mahathir did mostly was to use the ISA and civil defamation. He and Lee Kuan Yew decided that the best way to quell political dissent was to put them out of businesses and to bankrupt people; keep them tied up in court proceedings, make them pay high lawyers’ fees, keep them so busy defending themselves that they couldn’t engage in politics. Then he upped the ante when he went after Anwar,” he recalled.

He added, however, that despite the criticism levelled against prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak over the stifling freedom of speech and the crackdown on dissent, the latter was still portraying himself to be a “moderate  Muslim” to other world leaders despite acting completely different back in Malaysia.

“The prime minister travels the world as a liberal, he presents himself as a liberal reformer still to this day as he travels around the world, as he talks about an open society, tolerant society.

“But then he comes home and acts very differently,” he said.

Dr Mahathir has been among the most vocal critics against 1Malaysia Development Berhad in the Barisan Nasional and has demanded Najib take responsibility for his brainchild, which is under corruption investigation by government agencies in several countries, including Hong Kong, Switzerland and the UK.

The 90-year-old retired prime minister had also joined in the two-day Bersih 4 rally in Kuala Lumpur, and urged Malaysians to use their “people power” to push for Najib’s removal through a no-confidence vote in Parliament.

However Dr Mahathir’s tenure was also rife with oppressive moves like the jailing of his then deputy prime minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as well as Ops Lalang, which was a security crackdown purportedly over fears of racial clashes stemming from allegations of interference in Chinese vernacular education.

But Ops Lalang was later perceived as a move to quash political dissent as over 100 mainly-opposition figures were detained.