COMMENT I am truly shocked to read that the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) is calling us “evil” for circumventing the Sarawak Report block.

And to use the Communications and Multimedia Act (CMA) against detractors during such political dark times would add to the anger of the people against the government of the day.

May I say that curiosity is in fact basic human nature and the right to know is a basic human right that cannot be taken away from us. The more the people in the power of corridor try to clamp down on a certain website, the more it becomes popular.

The Star , for example, rose to become the nation’s largest English daily when former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad suspended its permit. Meanwhile, it is proven that the once-upon-a-time prestigious English daily has suffered in recent years because it allegedly sought to become a part of the government machinery.

Driven by concern

Most of us are, in fact, driven by concern more than anything else.

The ringgit has for the first time breached the RM3.80 peg, and the country’s reserves have also dropped 4.7 percent to US$100.5 billion (RM380 billion) within a span of only two weeks.

Amidst all this, we are reading that RM42 billion may have gone missing from the public coffers. Each of us has to do our part to protect the nation from going into bankruptcy.

Acquiring knowledge is the only means for us to engage in mature discussions, and raise the pertinent questions that have to be asked, whether in parliament or in the public domain. One of the sources happens to be Sarawak Report .

While the investigation is on-going, no one including the MCMC can discredit the report posted by Claire Rewcastle-Brown. Whatever she has uploaded there is worth the salt; otherwise, people would not even be bothered to read it now. It would become another Malaysia Today portal.

Therefore, when Sarawak Report’ s site was blocked by MCMC, we are naturally interested to know who is telling the truth, especially since even Dr Mahathir is also all ‘fired-up’.

So, unless we know the answer (and given the credible answers), most of us will continue to ask, “What happened to the RM42 billion?”

A matter of credibility

RM42 billion is a huge sum of money. It is almost nine percent of the country’s reserves and it is 14 times the amount of reserves of the Selangor state government. Most of us do not even get to see a million ringgit in our bank account during a whole lifetime!

Is this not what MCMC should be equally concerned about? Are they not concerned that money from the public pensioner’s fund (KWAP) may have been loaned to parties linked to 1MDB, especially since this has never been accounted for, as alleged by the whisteblower site Sarawak Report ?

Blocking access to information is therefore uncalled for, especially for an agency that is entrusted with preserving the dignity of Internet connectivity. We are being watched by the rest of the world. Do we want to become like some of the ‘scoundrel’ nations that are under repressive regimes?

It is public funds and we want to know who is telling the truth and who is not. Is it Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, Jho Low or Abu, Ah Chong and Muthusamy who is withholding the truth from us?

We have read how Jho Low has splashed money with his luxurious lifestyle. We have also read about Rosmah Mansor’s son being in the news, just to mention a couple of examples of allegedly ‘living beyond one’s means’.

Who can we believe now? To date, neither Najib nor BN’s strategic communications director Rahman Dahlan has managed to provide straight answers to the questions raised. Instead, Rahman is merely playing the game of perception which is why, imitating Singaporean comedy persona Phua Chu Kang, I would like to say to him: “Don’t play, play...”

We are serious in trying to get the answers to questions raised by Dr Mahathir. The whole nation is concerned.

There is no political ploy to topple Najib, but there is increasing pressure from the public to ask Najib to graciously step down from his office so that an independent investigation could be carried out by a royal commission of inquiry. This is the voice of the people, not only the so-called mastermind nonagenarian who recently celebrated his birthday.

If the Government did not block Barry Wain’s book, ‘The Malaysian Maverick’, MCMC should also adopt the same level of openness for the good of the nation. If Najib has nothing to hide, MCMC should not take upon itself the burden of trying to defend the indefensible. Of late, Dr Mahathir has raised many questions that even Najib has not provided any answers, except to circumvent the real issues by producing a Q&A of his own.

At least, in his final countdown, Dr Mahathir is doing the nation some good. Although his original intentions were personal, I think the pressure for Najib to resign has escalated especially since The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) exposed the transfer of RM2.6 billion into accounts belonging to one with similar name and title as the sitting prime minister.

Most of us only start looking at Sarawak Report after WSJ broke the news. We only became more curious when MCMC decided to block Sarawak Report. As admitted by MCMC, it is not difficult to circumvent the block. All it takes is to google keywords like ‘Unblock Websites’ and IT experts are all over the place to tell us how to do it.

After reading Sarawak Report chief Clare Rewcastle-Brown’s ( photo ) report (which I am not allowed to re-publish now), and comparing it to Sarawakian journalist Lester Melanyi and Ramesh Rao Naidu, a pro-BN NGO chief, I am more likely to believe Rewcastle-Brown.

It is either that Rewcastle-Brown is such a smart woman, who has done all her homework, before publishing the damning report, or she is plain stupid to implicate so many people within one report.

Personally, I think that Rewcastle-Brown is one woman who has managed to piece the jigsaw puzzle together while most of us are busy playing our marbles and picture cards. If I were to make my recommendations to the government, I would ask that we give her ‘Malaysia, My Second Home’ status for all the hard work she has done.

 

Evil to block access to truth

I am not saying that Sarawak Report is the whole gospel truth, but at least the information should be made available for us to evaluate against the backdrop of what we read in the mainstream media.

Occasionally, I still read The Star to see what or how the government is spinning the story about the hudud laws. During the lead up to the last general election, that was what I told one of its senior staff, “It is not right to call it ‘hudud’ (over the holding of hands by a couple in public places) when it is not, and qualifying it with an open and close quotation.”

Honestly, MCMC should know that I hardly read Sarawak Report in the past, until the block was imposed. One reason is because unlike Malaysiakini and other portals which update us with the latest news by the minute, Rewcastle-Brown uploads her articles occasionally. There were mainly about Sarawak.

However, after MCMC blocked the site, Sarawak Report came to mind again. The first thing is to find google for ‘Ways to unblock websites’. I am not surprised that I am not the only one who has done this.

MCMC should also realise by now, that in 2012, there was a huge spike of readers. This was just before the last general election (GE13). In other words, people believe in what Rewcastle-Brown has to say more than the mainstream media which became BN’s propaganda machines overnight just before GE13.

If you do not block one side of the story, you should also not block the other side. A public debate has to have both sides of the story and being MCMC, your job is to be a referee to ensure that mature Malaysian public can have free access to information in the world wide web.

We are in the best position to make our own judgment. The less mature ones in our society would not even bother to read what is in the news.

MCMC has to accept the fact that it is not ‘evil’ for us to circumvent the block to to find out what is being said in Sarawak Report , and compare it with what Najib and his propaganda machine (borrowing the words from former New Straits Times editor-in-chief Kadir Jasin) have to say.

On the contrary, would it not be an abuse of power for MCMC or anyone to even block access to truth as it is told, whether in Sarawak Report or elsewhere? Please listen to the voice of conscience.

STEPHEN NG is an ordinary citizen with an avid interest in following political developments in the country since 2008.