Nooryana Najwa Najib,
It is not my intention to pour cold water or lecture you on the concept of openness and transparency. However, since you have used these notions to support your father’s bid for his review at the Federal Court to be telecast live, let me address some pertinent issues.
Academics describe an “open” government as transparent, accessible to anyone, anytime, anywhere; and responsive to new ideas and demands.
This thing about the spirit of “openness” and “transparency” you are seeking is not a new notion. For years, the people have demanded these values from the government – even when your father was the prime minister.
You are now claiming that your father had always wished for his court hearings to be broadcast live. But shouldn’t it have started during his time when he controlled almost everything?
Each time these ideas of openness and transparency were presented, the then government (under his watch) and the spin doctors dismissed them summarily as if they were illegal.
This openness should have been started by your father when details of the 1MDB scandal emerged seven years ago. Even when there was overwhelming evidence presented by various jurisdictions around the world, your father went into a cocoon and refused to answer questions – conflicting with the very same concepts he is now advocating.
Where was the openness when he booted out two ministers and removed the then attorney-general and three top officers of the MACC were removed without assigning any reasons?
Media muzzled
The local media was muzzled and those who chose to continue to question various issues on the 1MDB issue either lost their jobs or were consigned to a desk in the corner to twiddle their thumbs.
Wasn’t it under your father’s watch that publishing permits of The Edge and The Edge Financial Daily were suspended? Why? Because they chose to ignore the threats made and continued to publish sordid details of how the people’s money was siphoned by individuals.
Wasn’t it also during his tenure that three journalists were detained and subsequently released without any charges or conditions? When asked for an explanation in the name of openness, only an unconvincing answer was afforded.
The Home Ministry claimed that the two publications’ reporting of 1MDB was “prejudicial or likely to be prejudicial to public order, security or likely to alarm public opinion or is likely to be prejudicial to public and national interest.”
But which article or articles? Both publications have been subsequently vindicated by the publication of various facts and figures provided by law enforcement authorities in Singapore, the United States and Switzerland.
(The saving grace is that the courts found that the suspension was illegal and now, the government will have to pay costs and damages but the company did not pursue the issue.)
Truth suppressed
In an open letter to your father in October 2017, I wrote: “The PM, his ministers and the government must stop treating Malaysians as fools by making all kinds of statements which more often than not, appear like a page from Grimm’s Fairy Tales. The continued blabbering of untruths and half-truths will further erode whatever is left of the people’s confidence in the system.”
Did your father pay heed? Instead, he and his cabinet colleagues spewed out one lie after another to prevent the truth from emerging. Even the auditor-general’s report was altered with certain portions redacted.
Where was the openness then and is this not an example of how the system was used to prevent the concept of openness from being exercised?
Nooryana, openness is not a ready-to-use right or magic wand exclusive to the well-heeled, the movers and shakers and glitterati, or even a former prime minister. You cannot get it in a jiffy or at the snap of your fingers. - Mkini
R NADESWARAN is a veteran journalist who writes on bread-and-butter issues. Comments: citizen.nades22@gmail.com
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.
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