Karpal: fearless human rights defender

Let me begin by paying a very brief tribute to the honourable Malaysian in whose defence we meet this evening. Over a long and illustrious career, Saudara Karpal Singh has chalked up an immensely inspiring record. Today Karpal Singh is known not only to Malaysians but around the world as a brilliant lawyer, a fearless defender of human rights and a vociferous parliamentarian.

Please allow me to mention, too, several other honourable Malaysians who also need our support.

Fewer Malaysians would have known Saudara Zulkifli Sulong before Reformasi. But, under Zulkifli’s editorship, Harakah emerged as an impressive and popular alternative newspaper when the public was tired of lies and distortions in the mainstream papers. Puan Marina Yusoff has been a staunch critic of Dr Mahathir’s government. Saudara Mohamad Ezam chose to battle for Reformasi when many of his erstwhile colleagues preferred to remain deaf and dumb to the injustices Anwar had to endure. Encik Chia Lim Thye would probably have been unknown to virtually all of us here tonight if he weren’t the Harakah printer until recently.

For Saudara Karpal and these other honourable Malaysians facing one or another charge, these are indeed difficult times.

But these are very difficult times not just for them, but equally for what they represent and what they have tried to defend – which is nothing less than Malaysian democracy itself.

When the government chooses to mount an assault on people who champion the cause of democracy, then the government in fact attacks the very foundations of democracy. For it’s the defenders of democracy who are the very people who keep freedom alive, who speak up for the rights of all citizens, and who take up the grievances of the public.

When someone so prominent as Karpal Singh is hackled and harassed, more than just his freedom is threatened. When other people, such as Zulkifli Sulong, Marina Yusoff, Mohamad Ezam and Chia Lim Thye, are also hackled, more than their civil rights and liberties are threatened.

In the end, it is the freedom of all Malaysians, our human rights and civil liberties that are targeted.

What do those in power hope for when they try to stifle outspoken critics and vociferous dissidents?

Those in power hope to silence them, and, in so doing, put fear and strike terror in the hearts of ordinary, decent and caring Malaysians. The authorities hope thereby to frighten Malaysians so much so that no one will dare to stand up and point an accusing finger at the authorities, and say, "Your ways are wrong, your laws unfair; your policies discriminating, your prosecution selective, and you protect your friends and harass your foes."

Why do the authorities prosecute Karpal now? Why do they prosecute Zulkifli, Marina, Ezam, and Chia as well?

It is because the authorities who suffered a grievous blow in last year’s election hope to turn Malaysians into a nation of sheep that will bleat their praises, blindly follow their commands and keep them in power forever.

That is their motive: stifle dissent and silence the critics and they will have "their way" with all other Malaysians. But that attempt to silence legitimate criticism and legal dissent is not the "Malaysian way" no matter how many times Dr Mahathir imitates Frank Sinatra.

Since September 1998 when Anwar was sacked, more and more Malaysians understand that there is a right way in politics and in the conduct of public life that reflects fairness and justice, truth and honesty.

However, that way is not the Mahathir way, the Abdullah Badawi way, or any legal way that reflects not a fair rule of law, but a despicable rule by law.

Maybe the authorities want us to believe that they are doing things in an above-board manner and that we should simply accept that the law is taking its course.

But we have learnt since the 1987 UMNO crisis, the mass arrests under Operasi Lalang, the Tun Salleh Abas dismissal, and the Lim Guan Eng and Anwar Ibrahim cases, that even a legal way of silencing critics doesn’t ensure that the authorities act without bias and unfairness.

If the authorities are so scrupulous about doing things the legal way, why don’t they prosecute Dr Mahathir for any of his numerous slanderous and seditious statements? If they don’t practise selective prosecution, why don’t they prosecute the owners, publishers and editors of the Barisan Nasional-controlled media for carrying the perverse and sickening advertisements during the election campaign period? If they act without fear or favour, why haven’t they let the law take its course when Anwar Ibrahim had lodged so many police reports against Daim Zainuddin or Rafidah Aziz for alleged corruption?

Or does law, under Mahathir, only take its course against legitimate criticism and dissent? Does Mahathir’s way lead to prosecution only for the Karpal Singhs, the Zulfifli Sulongs, Marina Yusoffs, Mohamad Ezams and Chia Lim Thyes in our country?

Think for a moment about the law under which Karpal is being charged. It is none other than the Sedition Act of 1948, an archaic and anachronistic piece of legislation, enacted by British colonialism to deal with nationalist dissent in the colonies under its control.

Our present government, which claims to be the most nationalistic one in our history, will not even discard this utterly obnoxious piece of colonial legislation. Malaysians may have got rid of colonialism, but it seems our nationalistic government has retained colonial habits.

The government has only recently celebrated the end of the second millennium. And yet it adopts and uses this Sedition Act of 1948 that makes it an offence for anybody to "bring into hatred or contempt", or "excite disaffection against any government". This Sedition Act makes it an offence for any citizen to "raise discontent or disaffection among the subjects or bring into hatred or contempt or to excite disaffection against the administration of justice."

How ridiculous, how obsolete, and how non-Y2K compliant this 1948 Sedition Act is!

It was drafted and introduced by people who wanted to keep the natives in check. Yet today it is used by our government, which applies it without any sense of democracy.

Any decent Malaysian would have pronounced this piece of legislation to be irrelevant. But this government insists on using it in such ways as to mock us as a nation and make us contemptible in the eyes of the world.

Is the Sedition Act necessary to maintain law and order, as the government claims? Or is this merely a law that protects an inefficient, non-transparent and undemocratic government from public scrutiny and challenge by a democratically elected opposition? Is the Sedition Act meant to prevent any criticism of the government even if the government is patently wrong and grossly corrupt? When the administration of justice is selective and discriminatory, are Malaysians to be frightened by the Sedition Act into silence and to pretend that everything is fine?

Unfortunately for the government, I’m sure, not all Malaysians are senile and ready to close their eyes, shut their mouths, and stupidly smile in the face of rampant injustice.

In fact, the government knows very well that many Malaysians have a conscience, and are prepared to struggle for justice. That is why, even where there is no threat of public disorder, when there is no incitement over sensitive issues, that the government still wants to retain the Sedition Act. And not just the Sedition Act, but the Official Secrets Act and the Printing Presses and Publications Act.

Malaysians who believe in democracy know that we can’t tolerate the Sedition Act, which curtails our freedom of speech. We can’t have the Official Secrets Act, which hides official wrongdoing and denies the public their right to information. We must do away with the Printing Presses and Publications Act, which undermines the right of citizens to disseminate their ideas. And, of course, we simply can’t live any more with the Internal Security Act, which is the mother of oppressive acts.

The purpose of these different laws is to turn us into unthinking, unfeeling and uncaring robots. But unjust laws and unfair ways of government can only be changed through dissent and struggle.

We in Aliran, together with concerned Malaysians all over the country, realise that these unjust laws can only be changed through the collective efforts of Malaysians who conscientiously dedicate themselves to the preservation and defence of democracy in our country.

In all this, we are indebted to Karpal’s selfless example. Karpal has courageously shown that he cannot be cowed and that he cannot be silenced. Malaysians are fortunate that Karpal is a fighter who has been present and who continues to be engaged in every important defence of Malaysian democracy.

Today, when Karpal himself needs defending, I would like to assure him that we in Aliran, who have long been dedicated to a similar defence of justice and democracy, will stand by him, and all others like him, until justice is done.