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KUCHING, Aug 24: Prime Minister Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim must allow activists to fulfil their obligations and uphold his commitment to ‘reformasi’, or reformation, and a multicultural, representative government, says Sarawakian activist Peter John Jaban.
Peter John spoke out today in a press statement against the treatment of two activists, Arun Dorasamy and Global Human Rights Federation (GHRF) founder and president S Shashi Kumar, who were summoned by Bukit Aman police to answer questions about a video that both of them had posted online, in which they questioned Anwar’s act of presiding over a religious conversion ceremony at a mosque.
In a functioning democracy, he emphasised to the authorities that such scare tactics are unacceptable.
“The problem with politicians is that they all call for change until it is inconvenient to them. Our Prime Minister needs to remember that it was activists who kept his situation in the public eye when he was being persecuted by the government of the time.
“It was activists who campaigned for his release from prison, who went down to the streets, who rallied the people, and raised the issues which put him into the position of power he enjoys today, sometimes at great cost to themselves.
“Activists might be inconvenient to him on this issue, but we are effective and an essential part of the democratic process,” he asserted.
Peter John, who is also GHRF deputy president, further claimed, “Freedom of expression is the reason that Anwar is Prime Minister today. If he does not intend to enshrine their role as a key tenet of his new government, then he will have made no substantial change at all.”
As is the nature of public service, he continued, Anwar must acknowledge the criticism and address it.
“Politics is perception and he has been long enough in the game to know this. He has made this a political act by performing this conversion in public.”
Peter John went on to explain that if the police are acting on their own in accordance with an outdated SOP, now is the time for Anwar to take a stand.
“This is an opportunity, not a threat. He needs to listen more than he talks and he should separate his private life from political gain.
“Freedom of expression is an essential component of democracy and criticism an inevitable product of a political life.” — DayakDaily
