MALAYSIA IS A ‘POLICE STATE’ – SO SAYS MAHATHIR, THE EX-PM WHO JAILED DOZENS WITHOUT TRIAL TO STAY IN POWER

Dr Mahathir claims police used to deter and silence him

KUALA LUMPUR: Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad spoke of double standard when he claimed that police was being used to deter and silence him from speaking out on issues and predicaments affecting the Malays in the country.

The former prime minister made such a claim after he was earlier summoned by the police to have his statements recorded over his social media postings that were made last month.

It is learnt that the posting in question is the one entitled “Malaysia is a Malay country”.

Dr Mahathir nevertheless defended making such a posting when he accused the government of selective prosecution and practising double standard as well as using the authorities at their whims and fancies, subsequently reducing Malaysia into ‘a police state’.

“To me, the action by the police is a form of pressure to threaten me from speaking out about issues enveloping the country. What I have said was clearly based on facts and did not violate the laws.

“We have reached a level where the country has become ‘a police state’… The government can make any decision, the Attorney-General can make any decision regardless if it is according to the laws or otherwise,” he told reporters here today.

It was reported earlier that Dr Mahathir was being called by the police to have his statements recorded over the social media postings.

On July 27, Mahathir uploaded two posts on his Facebook account. The posts were titled ‘Malaysia is a Malay Country” and “Multiracialism”.

Dr Mahathir also did not mince his words when he accused the administration under the leadership of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim of a dictatorship.

He said Anwar, who was previously known for championing reforms and eliminating laws that were deemed archaic, had changed since the PKR president assumed the country’s premiership.

“There was a statement (allegedly made by the Prime Minister) as if such a matter could not be discussed since it touches 3R (race, religion and the royal institution).

“Such a matter (prohibiting people or groups from speaking out on issues deemed sensitive) should be decided and prevented via the amendment of the law in Parliament.

“But the Prime Minister deciding what can or cannot be spoken is as if he is the ‘raja’ (king) or dictator. It has been more than 60 years since the country gained its independence.. we should be more liberal but the government that we have now is putting pressure and discriminatory,” he said.