Deporting Xenophon proves BN is authoritarian
MP SPEAKS In the run-up to the 13th general election, Malaysians are seeing the full flowering of the Greek saying, "Those whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad".
MP SPEAKS In the run-up to the 13th general election, Malaysians are seeing the full flowering of the Greek saying, "Those whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad".
Last month, former and longest-serving prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad flaunted his treasonous deeds in the "citizenship-for-votes" scams in Sabah with Project M and Project IC in the Eighties and Nineties, resulting in true Sabahans becoming a minority in their own land - and who added insult to injury when he alleged that Bapa Malaysia Tunku Abdul Rahman had given citizenship to one million "unqualified" non-Malays before Merdeka.
As if not enough damage had been done, Mahathir has compounded it by advocating a two-thirds parliamentary majority for the BN so as to be able to revoke the citizenship of Bersih co-chairperson S Ambiga for her patriotic campaign for free, fair and clean elections.
Last week, as if the resounding "Yes for Psy, No for BN" at Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's Penang Chinese New Year bash featuring Korean K-Pop superstar and the indignity of the prime minister, former prime minister and cabinet ministers waiting on stage forlornly and in vain for Psy to join them for a the yee sang toss were not embarrassments enough, four days after the event and without an iota of evidence, the Penang BN leaders spun the tale that there had been attempts on the lives of Psy and Najib. At least Najib has the sense, so far, to keep mum on the tall tale.
The latest evidence of the workings of the Greek saying, "Those whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad" is the 15-hour detention and deportation of Australian Senator Nick Xenophon, furnishing a national and international confirmation that the BN government of Malaysia is "authoritarian" and Najib a "false democrat".
The claim by Immigration Department director-general Alias Ahmad that Xenophon is on the "blacklist" because he tarnished the country's image by calling the Malaysian government "authoritarian" in handling the Bersih 3.0 rally for free and fair elections last April is most puerile and infantile.
On this basis alone, Malaysians would be persona non grata in many countries that we have criticised, with former prime minister Mahathir as the No 1 Malaysian who would not be able to enter most number of the Western countries!
Utter lack of independence
However, what takes the cake is the deplorable and most questionable endorsement of Xenophon's detention and deportation by the Election Commission, whose deputy chairperson Wan Ahmad Wan Omar said it would be unjust to use Xenophon's expulsion to judge the fairness of the 13th general election.
Apart from highlighting its utter lack of independence and impartiality, the Election Commission cannot be more wrong.
The "authoritarian" and undemocratic expulsion of Xenophon has now put the whole question of the integrity of the electoral process, and whether the 13th GE will be free, fair and clean, on the international radar.
The whole world is now asking: what have the Election Commission and the Umno/BN government got to hide that they are so afraid of independent, foreign observers for the 13th GE as having to strain foreign relations and brave international condemnation and opprobrium as to detain and deport Xenophon?
The world is also waiting and watching whether Najib is indeed the "false democrat" as depicted by Mark Mackinnon, the award-winning journalist of the Canadian The Globe and Mail in his article of June 8, 2012, in particular with reference to his definition of a "false democrat" as one who "holds elections but has no intention of giving up power" and whose "serious political rivals are jailed and their parties are outlawed on legal technicalities".
Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said yesterday that the DAP had not submitted its party election returns within 60 days as required by law and the Registrar of Societies would start investigations against the DAP.
Yesterday, I had in my Tweet asked: "What will Hishammuddin do as home minister if DAP can prove that DAP have submitted elections returns to 2ROS b4 CNY?"
Maybe Hishammuddin and Najib are seriously thinking of declaring DAP illegal and unlawful because they are desperate about the prospects of Umno/BN in the 13th GE, despite all the boasts that they can win big in a free and fair election, even regaining two-thirds parliamentary majority and retaking the Pakatan Rakyat-ruled states of Penang, Selangor, Kedah and Kelantan.
Let them ponder the Greek saying: "Those whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad".
LIM KIT SIANG is DAP parliamentary leader and the MP for Ipoh Timor.
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