Aliran views with deep concern the threat by the Penang Island City Council to take legal action against Selangor MCA Beliawanis chief Jessie Ooi for having posed queer questions pertaining to the City Council and Penang during the much-hyped Lim-Chua debate recently.
Events proved that she was one confused lady who shouldn’t have made a fool of herself.
While Ms Ooi’s questions may be irritatingly laughable – and she’s paying for that by the odium she has invited from angry Malaysians – threatening to slap her with a legal suit is indeed going overboard.
The dangerous signal sent out to the general public – to paraphrase Ms Ooi – is that you could get punished severely in future even for raising pertinent questions about the City Council. When people know what is the truth and what is a lie is there a need to resort to this kind of action?
Unless they rescind their intended legal action, in this instance, the City Council’s heavy-handedness will not go down well with people who cherish the culture of freedom of expression and accountability.
We call upon the City Council to call off their intended legal threat, and instead focus on other things that really matter to the people of Penang Island. Besides, this would save the ratepayers’ money that would have been wasted on the entire legal procedure.
On Jessie’s part, she should apologise for her outburst based on inaccurate ‘facts’. That should close the matter.
Aliran Executive Committee
24 February 2012
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