Kit Siang flays Putrajaya's 'infantile' defence of TMI ban

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The Malaysia government has become a laughing stock of the world with its “infantile and moronic” justification that banning news portal The Malaysian Insider was to maintain “peace, stability and harmony”, an opposition leader says.

DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang described Wisma Putra's response as “one of the most asinine statements ever issued in the name of the Malaysian government in the nation's 59-year history”.

The Foreign Ministry said yesterday Putrajaya needed to maintain peace, stability and harmony in defending its blocking of Internet access to TMI after the move was criticised by the United States.

It was responding to Washington’s concern over the move to restrict access to domestic and international reporting on current Malaysian affairs and US State Department spokesman John Kirby’s call for the Malaysian government to ensure that its laws respect freedom of expression, including the free flow of ideas on the Internet.

In a statement today, Lim questioned the intellectual heft of the “Mandarins” in the Malaysian civil service in which such a statement could pass muster as to be released in the name of the Malaysian government.

He further queried the government's 20-year Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) Bill of Guarantees, especially its pledge not to censor the Internet.

"Are all the 10 guarantees in the MSC Bill of Guarantees now to be regarded as no better than a worthless scrap of paper?

"Even more important, does Wisma Putra (Foreign Ministry) really believe in the garbage it has trotted out that the ban on TMI was necessary 'to maintain peace, stability and harmony to safeguard the multiracial and multicultural values, norms and practices in Malaysia'?"

Lim said Malaysians would like to know who among the cabinet ministers who believe in "such garbage".

"When has zeal, fervour and passion to combat corruption and financial scandals like (PM) Najib (Razak's) twin mega scandals undermined or threatened 'peace, stability and harmony in the country' or inimical to the 'multiracial and multicultural values, norms and practices' in Malaysia?"

The MP for Gelang Patah added that while he has strong differences with Najib, he doesn't believe that the PM has become so intellectually bankrupt as to believe in the “garbage” dished out by Wisma Putra to justify the banning of TMI.

"The prime minister has asked Internet users to differentiate truth from lies before forming a judgment – but the violation of the MSC Bill of Guarantees on 'no Internet censorship' and the ban on Internet news portals are not helping Malaysians to differentiate truth from lies, as they only sought to hide the truth from the Malaysian citizenry," Lim added.



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