From: Kharin (kharin@kharin.com)
Date: Tue Oct 28 2003 - 16:21:25 MST
"And at least he appears to have been democratically elected - but perhaps this was rigged a la Mugabe."
Correct.
http://www.ahrchk.net/hrsolid/mainfile.php/2000vol10no09/708/
"Despite regular multiparty elections, most of the minimal conditions necessary for the practice of democracy in the Shumpeterian sense, particularly fair elections, adequate opportunities for independent political opinion-making and political organisation and minimal protection for the individual from arbitrary state power, hardly exist in Malaysia.
In other words, elections in Malaysia are seen as so unfairly conducted and prejudiced against the opposition that they are a mere sham used to endorse the rule of the dictator, albeit an elected dictator.
Such features of authoritarianism have become more pronounced since Dr Mahathir Mohamed took over as prime minister in 1981. There has been a steady encroachment by the executive on all of the other branches of government, the judiciary and Parliament. The federal Constitution has been amended so many times that Parliament is just like another branch of the prime minister's office.
The judiciary was brought into line when the Lord President Tun Salleh Abbas, together with two Supreme Court judges, was sacked in 1988 for refusing to toe the prime minister's line. Ever since, independence of the judiciary has become a dirty word, suspicions about its integrity publicly voiced and no action taken against a 33-page letter outlining corruption and malpractices among the highest judges of the land, a letter penned by a High Court judge who was forced to resign.
As a result, Malaysians were cowed into silence with awards for damages in defamation suits involving tens of millions of ringgits, contempt action involving imprisonment became common and opposition leaders like myself convicted and jailed for sedition, banned and stripped of all political and civil rights.
Meanwhile, judges who are eminent jurists seeking reform and truth in the judiciary are hounded out of office. Even proceedings in Malaysian courts are no longer sacrosanct. Karpal Singh faces a three-year jail sentence under the Sedition Act for defending his client in court, Malaysia's famous accused, ex-Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim. Which lawyer in Malaysia dares to act as counsel for opposition politicians now that they may well join their client in prison?
The circle of authoritarianism became complete when the executive was emasculated with powers concentrated in the office of the prime minister, a virtual dictator. Which minister dares to disobey the prime minister when he has absolute powes to sack any minister without giving any reason whatsoever? In fact, it is standard practice for certain ministers or chief ministers to give the prime minister undated resignation letters.
The centralisation of powers in the hands of one person was achieved with the active acquiescence of the Fourth Estate. The press has ceased to function. There is not so much as no freedom of the press as a freedom to lie on the government's behalf coupled with a total news blackout of all unfavourable news.
The government-controlled print and electronic media plays its role not just in promoting and legitimising its mastery but also to discredit the opposition and create dissent generally. For those who still refuse to bow and scrape, imprisonment awaits them as highlighted by the imprisonment of Far Eastern Economic Review correspondent Murray Hiebert last year."
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