Zaid defends Ambiga's 'dictatorial govt' remark

Former law minister Zaid Ibrahim has defended former Bersih chairperson Ambiga Sreenevasan for calling the Pakatan Harapan-led government “dictatorial”.

In a statement posted on X, Zaid (above) said the test to determine how dictatorial a government is relies on whether it permits free speech and how often it uses the police to charge people with sedition.

It would also depend on whether the government is facing any major crisis to justify strict action and frequent police use, he added.

“On this test, the Madani govt that has a 2/3 majority and no crises to talk about, is much more dictatorial.

“So Ambiga is 100 percent right,” he said.

Yesterday, government spokesperson Fahmi Fadzil expressed his disagreement with Ambiga’s remark, saying that it was not this government that conducted Ops Lalang.

Ops Lalang refers to the police operations in 1987, under the first premiership of Dr Mahathir Mohamad, which saw over 100 politicians and activists being detained under the now-defunct Internal Security Act.

On July 29, Ambiga criticised the government over its proposal to get social media and internet messaging services with at least eight million registered users to apply for a licence.

Power struggles and judiciary crisis

In his statement, Zaid also said Mahathir’s actions in Ops Lalang were understandable though unjustified.

“While I am not saying Ops Lalang was justified, Dr M (Mahathir) was fighting for his dear life, and you could tell his action was understandable.

“Anyway, after 1987, he only used detention powers sparingly in his 23-year rule,” he said.

He went on to include the police and the cabinet, which included Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, of the time in the blame for the operations.

It was a time of major crisis with power struggles in Umno destabilising the government, a worse relationship between the party and coalition partner MCA, and a judiciary crisis, he said.

The judicial crisis also occurred during Mahathir’s premiership and he was widely blamed for the sacking of the judges after they declared Umno illegal. Zaid oversaw reconciliation efforts.

Besides that, Zaid referred to Malaysia’s first prime minister Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra al-Haj, whom he claimed called both Mahathir and Anwar “useless”.

“He said both Dr M and Anwar are useless and would destroy the country.”

This is not 'Ops Lalang' govt, Fahmi rebukes Ambiga

'Most dictatorial govt': Bersih chief refutes Ambiga's statement

'Dictatorial govt': Did Anwar suspend Parliament, MP chides Ambiga

PM assures freedom of speech on social media

'Most dictatorial govt': Ambiga slams new social media licensing move