Contact-tracing the non-essentials

 

The recipe for survival for any embattled ruling party to stay in power is the same – persuasion or force. If persuasion is not working, then force is the only avenue to deal with dissent.

We have seen it during the Reformasi era, how then prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad used the ISA and public institutions at curbing opposition to his rule and we have seen how then-premier Najib Abdul Razak used the Sedition Act to deal with dissent during his rule.

Now it seems that the Perikatan Nasional government is becoming increasingly repressive by the hour.

It is the norm that police will call up participants or organisers of public rallies to record 112 statements, so-called because they are recorded under a procedure prescribed in Section 112 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

However, it is abnormal to call members of Suhakam and the Bar Council monitoring these assemblies to record their statements as well. The is an indication that the repression level of the ruling party has been upgraded.

It is abnormal for the police to go and check if the residents of the addresses that protest participants gave in their 112 statements are genuine. This seems to be the police's new activity.

After the recent Lawan assembly, the Dang Wangi police district recorded statements of organisers and participants. Then an additional instruction supposedly came from the KL Contingent – IPK Criminal division where police officers were told to verify the addresses of the participants.

Three to four police officers were dispatched to track down the houses of participants to check if they stayed there. While we have a serious problem in doing contact tracing for Covid close contacts, the government has resources to do contact tracing for those involved in a peaceful demonstration.

ROS definition of essentials

Now suddenly, during the height of the pandemic, the Registrar of Societies (ROS) has an issue with Umno's election. This is the same ROS that told PKR to postpone its virtual congress in June 2021 saying it is not allowed because it is "non-essential social activities" according to the National Security Council (NSC).

Imagine postponing a virtual congress because of the pandemic and now invalidating Umno's decision to postpone its election. Suddenly Umno's election has become an essential activity for the ROS during the pandemic.

The ROS, which on July 19 told Umno it had no issue with the postponement of its party election suddenly yesterday said that Umno's decision to postpone its party elections was invalid.

You wouldn’t need a rocket scientist to figure this out. History will explain how Mahathir’s Umno Baru was allowed and in the process, sidelined his opposition who then tried to form Umno Malaysia.

This is why the government needs a month before they can hold the vote of confidence. For the next one month, the ROS will be busy.

For the next one month, the government will be busy. The police will be busy contact tracing activists while others will be busy contact tracing MPs to seek their support to make up the numbers.

The only numbers the rakyat is concerned about are the daily Covid deaths and cases reported. It is times like these that we hope we have strong independent institutions that will focus and perform their duties to meet the real needs of the people when what is essential gets blurred in a struggle for power. - Mkini

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S ARUTCHELVAN is deputy chairperson of Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM).

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.