Pua: Zahid has zero sense of natural justice

Home Minister should provide The Edge with further and better particulars on the show cause letter or withdraw it.

KUALA LUMPUR: Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi must withdraw the show cause letter to The Edge if he can’t even specify which article The Edge published which was based on allegedly false information.

His attention should be on enforcement agencies like the police to ensure that they act with speed when dealing with real crimes against the government like the Mara property kickback scandal and the embezzlement of funds from 1MDB.

It was only fair, reiterated Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua, that if The Edge was to be given a fair opportunity to respond to the letter, it must know what offence it has allegedly committed in the first place.

The Edge rightfully requested for information on the offensive articles, pointed out Pua who is also DAP National Publicity Secretary. The paper has published more than 300 articles on 1MDB alone, apart from Bernama, Bloomberg, Reuters, Business Times, Euromoney, alongside their own reporting from the media channels in The Edge Media Group.

However, lamented Pua, the Home Minister Zahid dismissed the request for information outright in the most arrogant and unbecoming fashion.

“Whoever eats chillies will feel the heat, there is no need for them to ask us which articles involved matters which are not true… They should know,” Zahid reportedly told The Star, said Pua.

“The reply only proves that the Home Minister has zero sense of natural justice and tramples on the rule of law.”

Pua was revisiting the Home Ministry issuing The Edge a show cause letter accusing them of “publishing articles on 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) that have created confusion and doubts about the government and our financial institutions.”

The Edge was also accused of relying on an Internet portal for the articles.

However, reiterated Pua, the degree of intimidation was so brazen and crass that the show cause letter did not even specify the allegedly offending articles.

Pua argued that one cannot charge an accused on an alleged crime without informing the accused of the specific crime he has allegedly committed. “This is among the first principles of natural justice in English law, the European Convention of Human Rights and the United Nations.”

He asked: “How is The Edge expected to defend itself when it doesn’t even know what wrongdoing the Home Minister is accusing them of?”

“Zahid should stop behaving like a tin-pot dictator of a banana republic. The Minister was making Malaysia the laughing stock of the world and destroying the country’s reputation in the process.”