Communications and Multimedia Minister Salleh Said Keruak today took Dr Mahathir Mohamad to task over his statement that Pakatan Harapan would allow more press freedom and remove laws that restrict freedom of expression if voted into power in the coming general election.

He questioned the former prime minister for not doing it during his premiership.

"What exactly are the laws that Mahathir intends to remove? And why did he not introduce those changes when he was prime minister for 22 years and had the power to do so?" said Salleh in a blog post today.

Salleh also questioned Mahathir’s sincerity in promoting democracy in the country as during his time, he defended the Internal Security Act (ISA), a preventive detention law, which he now claimed as a draconian law that threatened democracy.

"When the New York Twin Towers was attacked in 2001, Mahathir said the Petronas Twin Towers is still standing because Malaysia has the ISA, and if the US also had laws like the ISA their twin towers would still be standing.

"And when the government wanted to abolish the ISA, Mahathir was against that move. So how serious is Mahathir about more democracy for Malaysia, given that he was opposed to democracy when he was in power?” said Salleh.

The minister also cynically asked Mahathir if he had made a U-turn on his stand.

“It was not too long ago that Mahathir said Malaysia is a guided democracy and can never be a full democracy like in the west, because of the delicate and fragile racial and religious balance of Malaysia’s population.

"Mahathir argued that unrestricted freedom of expression would invite racial or religious strife. Therefore the western version of democracy and free speech cannot work in Malaysia.

"Has Mahathir done a U-turn on that as well?” said Salleh.

- Bernama