Xenophon expulsion shows BN ‘frightened’ by democratic freedom, says Aussie paper

By Clara Chooi
Assistant News Editor

February 19, 2013

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 19 — The deportation of Australian Senator Nick Xenophon last weekend shows that the Najib administration is “frightened” that Malaysians may have finally reached racial maturity and are for true democratic freedom, the Sydney Morning Herald said today.

The paper’s international editor Peter Hartcher said the Barisan Nasional-led (BN) government, despite its over half a century rule, has yet to turn the country into a mature democracy, fearing that a truly free and fair election would threaten its grip on power.

He noted Xenophon’s role as an international observer of Malaysia’s polls system in a wider campaign for fair elections, saying this was likely what sparked the independent senator’s expulsion from the country on Saturday.

“The reason is that he is an international observer campaigning in favour of a free and fair election,” Hartcher wrote in a commentary today.

“This is not a threat to Malaysia’s national security, but it is a threat to the ruling party’s grip on power,” he observed, repeating Opposition Leader Datuk Anwar Ibrahim’s claim to him before that “in a fair and free election, I am absolutely sure we will win.’’

Xenophon (picture)has been openly critical of the BN government’s handling of the mass rally for free and fair elections here in April by electoral reforms group Bersih 2.0, having claimed in his observation that the police had arbitrarily used unnecessary force to clamp down on what had largely been a peaceful protest.

Hartcher cited communal politics as one of the key reasons behind BN’s 56-year grasp on power over multiracial Malaysia, but said Malaysians may now be ready to discard a rule founded on race-based policies.

He quoted from Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s 1970 book “The Malay Dilemma”, pointing to the former prime minister’s observation that the country’s most dominant ethnic group needed affirmative action to help them compete with the other races.

“It should not be wrong for the Malays to cling to a system which can elevate them to the status of other races, thus creating a more equitable society,” Hartcher wrote, quoting from Dr Mahathir’s book.

But the editor said that although this system had kept the peace for many years in Malaysia, the one-sided effect was that the BN government’s monopoly on power had allowed it a near-absolute control over all arms of the government, including the judiciary.

Hartcher referred to Anwar’s first sodomy conviction, which saw the country’s former deputy prime minister — Dr Mahathir’s former number two — dragged from power and thrown into prison for a whopping six years.

But he pointed out that much has changed since Anwar’s freedom, leading to BN’s colossal electoral losses in Election 2008 where the ruling pact saw its chokehold over Parliament slackened significantly.

He said Dr Mahathir may have anticipated in “The Malay Dilemma” that Malaysia’s race-based construct would one day be obsolete, but the country’s longest-serving prime minister may not be ready that this moment could have arrived.

“He is not ready for the possibility that today could be the day, or that the people are the ones who have to make that decision,” he said.

This in mind, Hartcher said there could be real fear among those in the ruling BN pact that the coming 13th general election could see it lose federal power completely.

Malaysia’s people deserve a free vote, and Australia should stand with them in calling for one. — Sydney Morning Herald international editor Peter Hartcher

He noted that BN secretary-general Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor had once stressed the importance of “avoiding racial strife” in Malaysia to the international observer group that had monitored the Bersih rally, of which Xenophon was a member of.

Hartcher said that Tengku Adnan had posed this question to the group: “Are our people mature for freedom?’’

“The Malaysian government is afraid not of an Australian senator but of this question. In particular, the Najib government is frightened that the answer might be ‘yes’,” the editor wrote.

Xenophon, who was part of a bipartisan parliamentary delegation from Australia, was deported from Malaysia last Saturday for posing a “security risk” to the country.

He had travelled to Kuala Lumpur to call on Anwar, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Aziz and Election Commission (EC) officials this week, but was detained at the Low-Cost Carrier Terminal in Sepang and subsequently deported late at night.

The senator’s deportation immediately placed Malaysia under the international spotlight again for its purportedly harsh approach in handling criticisms against its administration.

Several Australian politicians have already denounced Xenophon’s expulsion, joining a chorus of condemnation from Foreign Affairs Minister Bob Carr and former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

But Hartcher said Carr’s reaction that Xenophon’s detention was “sad” and “disappointing” was a display of Australia’s usual “limpness” in defending its citizens abroad.

“But, above all, Malaysia’s overreaction to Xenophon simply validates his point that it is not a mature democracy.

“This has been Carr’s fig leaf to justify Australia’s silence at Malaysia’s lack of democratic freedom — that we have no place in criticising a mature democracy,” he said.

“The deportation of Xenophon is an implicit confession by the Najib government that Xenophon is right and Carr is wrong.

“Malaysia’s people deserve a free vote, and Australia should stand with them in calling for one.”

Source: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/xenophon-expulsion-shows-bn-frightened-by-democratic-freedom-says-aussie-paper/

International confirmation that BN government “authoritarian” and Najib a “false democrat”

53-Day Countdown to 13GE: Xenophon’s 15-hr detention and deportation – international confirmation that BN govt “authoritarian” and Najib a “false democrat”

By Lim Kit Siang

In the run-up to the 13th General Elections, Malaysians are seeing the full flowering of the Greek saying, “Those whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad”.By Lim Kit Siang

Last month, former and longest-serving Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir flaunted his treasonous deeds in the “citizenship-for-votes” scams in Sabah in Project M and Project IC in the eighties and nineties, resulting in true Sabahans becoming a minority in their own land – and who added insult to injury when he alleged that Bapa Malaysia Tunku Abdul Rahman had given one million citizenship to “unqualified” non-Malays before Merdeka.

As if not enough damage had been done, Mahathir has compounded it by advocating a two-thirds parliamentary majority for Barisan Nasional so as to be able to revoke the citizenship of Bersih co-chairperson S. Ambiga for her patriotic campaign for free, fair and clean elections.

Last week, as if the three resounding “Yes for Psy, Noes for BN” at Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s Penang Chinese New Year bash featuring Korean K-Pop superstar and the indignity of the Prime Minister, former Prime Minister and Cabinet Ministers waiting on stage forlornly and in vain for Psy to join them for a “yee san toss” were not embarrassments enough, four days after the event and without an iota of evidence, Penang Barisan Nasional leaders spun the tale that there had been attempts on the lives of Psy and the Prime Minister. At least, Najib had the sense so far to keep mum on the tall tale.

The latest evidence of the workings of the Greek saying, “Those whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad” is the 15-hour detention and deportation of Australian Senator, furnishing a national and international confirmation that the Barisan Nasional government of Malaysia is “authoritarian” and Najib a “false democrat”.

The claim by the Immigration director-general Datuk Alias Ahmad that Xenophon is on the Immigration “blacklist” because he had tarnished the country’s image, such as calling the Malaysian government “authoritarian” in handling the Bersih 3.0 rally for free and fair elections last April, is most puerile and infantile, as on this basis, Malaysians would be persona non grata to many countries that they had criticized with former Prime Minister Tun Mahathir as the Top Malaysian who could not travel to the most number of Western countries!

But what takes the cake is the deplorable and most questionable endorsement of Xenophon’s detention and deportation by the Election Commission, whose deputy chairman Datuk Wan Ahmad Wan Omar said it was unjust to judge the fairness of the 13GE based on Xenophon’s expulsion.

Apart from highlighting its utter lack of independence and impartiality, the Election Commission cannot be more wrong.

The “authoritarian” and undemocratic expulsion of Xenophon has now put the whole question of the integrity of the electoral process, whether the 13GE will be free, fair and clean, on the international radar.

The whole world are now asking – what has the Election Commission and the UMNO/BN government got to hide that they are so afraid of independent foreign observers to the 13GE as having to strain foreign relations and brave international condemnation and opprobrium as to detain and deport Xenophon?

The world is also waiting and watching whether Najib is indeed the “false democrat” as depicted by Mark Mackinnon, the award-winning journalist of the Canadian The Globe and Mail in his article of June 8, 2012, in particular with reference to his definition of a “false democrat” who is one who “hold elections but have no intention of giving up power” and whose “serious political rivals are jailed and their parties are outlawed on legal technicalities”.

The Home Minister, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said yesterday that DAP had not submitted its party election returns within 60 days as required by law and the Registrar of Societies will start investigations into the DAP.

Yesterday, I had in my tweet asked: “What will Hishammuddin do as Home Minister if DAP can prove that DAP has submitted elections returns to 2ROS b4 CNY?”

May be Hishammuddin and Najib are seriously thinking of declaring DAP illegal and unlawful because they are desperate about the UMNO/BN prospects in the 13GE, despite all the boasts that they can win big in a free and fair elections, even regaining two-thirds parliamentary majority and retake the present Pakatan Rakyat states of Penang, Selangor, Kedah and Kelantan.

Let them ponder the Greek saying: “Those whom the Gods wish to destroy they first make mad”.

Source: http://blog.limkitsiang.com/2013/02/17/53-day-countdown-to-13ge-xenophons-15-hr-detention-and-deportation-international-confirmation-that-bn-govt-authoritarian-and-najib-a-false-democrat/#more-22290

Australia’s former PM Rudd tells Canberra to be ‘robust’ on Xenophon expulsion

By Boo Su-Lyn

February 17, 2013

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 17 — Australia’s former prime minister Kevin Rudd condemned Australian senator Nick Xenophon’s detention in Malaysia as unacceptable and urged Canberra to be “robust” in response.

Xenophon (picture) arrived in Kuala Lumpur yesterday morning to call on Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, de facto law minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Aziz and Election Commission (EC) officials next week, but was detained at the Low-Cost Carrier Terminal in Sepang and subsequently deported late at night.

“Detaining any member of an Australian parliament, in the way in which Senator Xenophon appears to have been detained, is just unacceptable,” Rudd told Australian news channel Sky News today.

“We are robust about our democracy and therefore we should be robust in our response to our friends in Kuala Lumpur,” he added.

Xenophon was to review the country’s electoral system with a delegation of other Australian MPs and senators that would arrive later, but his colleagues have cancelled the trip in response to his deportation.

Rudd said today that Australia was a “good friend” to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, but that Putrajaya’s action warranted a response.

“He’s an elected member of the Australian Parliament and should be treated with the appropriate respect,” added Rudd, referring to Xenophon.

The deportation order issued by the Malaysian Immigration Department to Nick Xenophon.- Picture courtesy of Nick Xenophon's office

Immigration Department director-general Datuk Alias Ahmad said yesterday that Xenophon was deported and barred from entering Malaysia under the Immigration Act 8(3) because the senator had made statements that allegedly tarnished Malaysia’s image.

Alias highlighted Xenophon’s remarks about the Malaysian government being “authoritarian” in handling last April’s Bersih 3.0 rally for free and fair elections.

In Xenophon’s observation of the rally, he noted that the police had fired tear gas and chemical-laced water in what had been a largely peaceful protest.

His comments were also laid down in the final report of a fact-finding mission on elections in Malaysia as part of an international polls observer group that included six others, including representatives from neighbouring Indonesia, the Philippines, India, Pakistan and Germany.

Xenophon’s detention and deportation have raised the ire of several Malaysians, including electoral reform group Bersih 2.0 and Pakatan Rakyat (PR) politicians.

Bersih 2.0 co-chair Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan lambasted Xenophon’s deportation as a move that showed the government’s “paranoia” about the coming national polls.

Anwar called it a “gross abuse of power” that violated international protocol in treating international lawmakers, especially those from the Commonwealth.

Several other Twitter users joined Ambiga in raining scorn on the government’s decision, with the subject spawning a hashtag #xenophon.

The Election Commission (EC) however has defended the lawmaker’s deportation, saying that immigration authorities were merely performing their duty.

EC deputy chairman Datuk Wan Ahmad Wan Omar added that it was unjust to judge the fairness of the coming Election 2013 based on Xenophon’s expulsion.

Source: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/australias-former-pm-rudd-tells-canberra-to-be-robust-on-xenophon-expulsion/