WE DON'T WANT TO BE LED BY FOOLS! Asylum bids show young Malaysians frustrated with govt UNFAIRNESS

Ali Abd Jalil and Alvin Tan’s decision to seek political asylum rather than face justice for their alleged offences is a symptom of the youths’ growing frustrations towards Putrajaya’s clampdown on political dissent, say analysts.

If Putrajaya continues its sedition blitz to silence critics, Malaysia is setting itself up for a future it is not prepared for, they told The Malaysian Insider.

Dr Lim Teck Ghee, who heads the Centre for Policy Initiatives, said Ali and Tan’s case could be a new trend if the government’s authoritarian and hard-line religious stance worsened.

“These will be some of your more educated and more talented ones who find the political repression intolerable," he said, adding that thousands more Malaysians who were not politically persecuted would also give up on Malaysia if Putrajaya did not ease its grip on opposing ideological views.

“But perhaps the present government sees it differently and prefers the political dissidents outside the country rather than within. If so, they may prove to be wildly successful.”

He said Putrajaya was mistaken if it believed it could continue to clamp down on its citizens’ freedom of expression, and not have to face any backlash.

“Young people know their human and legal rights more than the government gives them credit for.

“If they think they cannot get justice from the Malaysian system and if they have been given a label which condemns them for the rest of their lives, they may as well go to another country which respects human and basic rights and where their future will be brighter.”

Ibrahim Suffian, who heads independent pollster Merdeka Center, agreed, saying that the country’s youth were now being taught not to speak up, and eventually Putrajaya would have to pay the price for it.

"We have a large and young electorate. And if we are teaching them to be fearful to speak up now, we are gearing them up for a future of 'voicelessness' and force them underground which will create frustration over time.

"It's a long process but if this keeps going on like this where the space for civilised disagreement is closed, we are setting ourselves up for something we are not prepared for in the future.”

However, he said it was too early to tell if the sedition crackdown would create an exodus of activists from Malaysia.

"But I do think the recent spate of charges has had a chilling effect on the whole climate of dissent and on what is going on here currently."

Dr Wong Chin Huat, a fellow at think-tank Penang Institute, said Ali’s case in particular would leave an impression on Malay-speaking, underprivileged youth frustrated with the government.

“Ali is out there and given his combative character, he will continue to shout from overseas and become the face of a Malaysian in exile.

“Speaking in a religious tone, he compares unquestionable loyalty to royalty with idolatry. This will strike a chord among the Malays, especially those who speak Malay and are

underprivileged.”

He said this was also lesson to all Malaysians on how the government treated people who had different ideological views.

“Ali seeking asylum brings forward the debate: should an ideological position be criminalised even if it was advocated peacefully?

“Even more than that, his safety was not guaranteed by the government. He wasn’t just punished by the law, he was beaten up by the police and no action was taken.”

Lim said it was now time for the “professed moderates” within the government, including Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, “to show some spine".

“There appears to be three camps in the government: the authoritarian, moderate and couldn't-care-less camps, with the authoritarian and couldn't-care-less camps in the ascendency.

“They (the moderates) need to take urgent action to abolish the Sedition Act and related policies and remove individuals, such as the attorney-general under whose watch the current barrage of sedition cases has taken place,” said Lim.

In a Facebook posting on Saturday, Ali had said that he fled to Sweden to seek asylum abroad, saying he was not safe in Malaysia as he had been threatened by gangsters and “racist Malay groups”.

Ali faces three sedition charges for allegedly insulting the Johor royalty and the Sultan of Selangor in his Facebook postings.

He has been accused of posting seditious remarks on a Facebook page called "Kapitalis Bangsat" which allegedly belittled the Johor sultanate.

Ali was first detained on September 8 and taken into police custody in Kuala Lumpur, Selangor and Johor.

On September 23, he was released after posting bail of RM8,000 at the Shah Alam court complex. His freedom was short-lived as he was rearrested and taken to Johor, reportedly because other police reports had been lodged against him there.

Tan had earlier sought political asylum in the United States, which came to light after he announced it on his Facebook page.

The 26-year-old and his former partner, Vivian Lee, are facing criminal charges under the Sedition Act as well as the Film Censorship Act for their controversial online uploads, including a photo deemed insulting to Islam on Facebook, posted during the fasting month of Ramadan.

The couple, who came to be known as "Alvivi", were jointly accused of uploading a photo of them eating the pork dish, bak kut teh, with the caption "Selamat berbuka puasa" (Happy breaking fast).

They were given temporary possession of their passports on May 18, but only Lee showed up on June 3 to return it.

The Sessions Court has issued a warrant of arrest for Tan and forfeited his RM20,000 bail after he failed to return his passport on August 22. –TMI