Arrest me for speaking up: Mahathir
Published on: Tuesday, October 13, 2015
PUTRAJAYA: Dr Mahathir Mohamad has challenged the authorities to arrest him under the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act (Sosma) 2012 since according to their definition, anybody who speaks up against Prime Minister Najib Razak is deemed to have committed an act of sabotage against the government."For (the Government) to arrest me under Sosma is quite possible because according to their interpretation of 'sabotage of Government', anyone who says anything against the Prime Minister is about to topple the Government," Dr Mahathir told a press conference at the Perdana Leadership Foundation Monday.The former prime minister also said that he was willing to be arrested because somebody had to speak up against alleged wrongdoings in the country and that he, and other veteran political leaders had taken it upon themselves to get the job done.
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"Unless somebody speaks up, the Government will get away with doing all kinds of wrong things."As senior citizens, as people who are involved intimately with the politics of this country, we think that something should be done."He also argued that it was the people's right to topple a Government if they so wished because that was what democracy was all about."…toppling the Government is a right of the people in a democracy. So they may take action against me or any one of us but somebody has to take the risk to voice our disquiet, anger and feeling that the Government is not looking after the interests of this country.
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"Somebody must say it. So we have taken it upon ourselves to say it," he said.Mahathir was accompanied by former Cabinet Ministers Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, Datuk Sanusi Junid, Datuk Shafie Apdal and Tan Sri Ong Tee Keat.
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The media conference was held to show the leaders' disagreement with the arrest of former Umno man Khairuddin Abu Hassan and his lawyer Matthias Chang under Sosma, an anti-terrorism law.Khairuddin has lodged numerous police reports against 1Malaysia Development Berhad on suspicion of financial wrongdoing.Khairuddin and Chang should be released immediately, Dr Mahathir said, as the use of Sosma against them was an abuse of the legal process and a violation of the law's purpose."The two should be released immediately and the authorities should give the guarantee that no one will be detained under Sosma merely for expressing their views, criticism and taking actions as prescribed under the country's laws and constitution," Dr Mahathir said.Shafie said that Sosma was meant to deal with acts of terrorism only and that such a guarantee had been given in Parliament."I was part of the Cabinet that approved Sosma. It was specific to terrorism and guarantees were given in Parliament that it won't be used for political reasons," said the party vice-president who was sacked from the Cabinet on July 28.Shafie and Muhyiddin were dropped in the Cabinet reshuffle after both had openly criticised Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak over his handling of debt-ridden state investor 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB).Tengku Razaleigh, the serving MP for Gua Musang, added that a lot of people had asked him to make a stand to the government about the abuse of the law."This is not the spirit Sosma was presented to Parliament."We were under the understanding that this was not like the ISA (Internal Security Act). But the way it is being interpreted is not right," he said, referring to the colonial-era law on preventive detention that has since been repealed.Dr Mahathir also reiterated his criticism of the Attorney-General's Chambers' (AGC) dismissal of Bank Negara Malaysia's findings against 1MDB, accusing the public prosecutor's office of behaving like a judge as well.The central bank had appealed the AGC's decision not to take further action against 1MDB, despite its investigation that the state investor had made inaccurate disclosures in order to obtain permissions for overseas investments.The abuse of due process and the law prompted the BN leaders to express public opinion, Dr Mahathir said.Razaleigh also said Umno's current system has failed its members whose voices are drowned out by the leadership.The party needed a new system which allowed members to have proper representation so that their voices could be heard."The party system has failed. Now it seems to be dominated by the voices of the leaders rather than grassroots level, there's a big difference so because of that, I think it has failed."It seemed the ideas are coming from upstairs down, rather than downstairs up," said Razaleigh.He had joined other Barisan Nasional (BN) veterans, including his once-rival for the party presidency Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, in condemning Putrajaya's use of an anti-terrorism law to silence government critics.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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