S Pathmawathy and Hazlan Zakaria | 10:38AM Apr 20, 2012
Malaysiakini
Parliament adopted the amendments to the Printing, Presses and Publication Act (PPPA) at 2.15am today as BN and opposition MPs fired verbal barbs at each other in a heated atmosphere.
Lim Kit Siang (DAP-Ipoh Barat) questioned the gvernment’s intentions to “truly allow for freedom of the press” ,dismissing the amendments to the PPPA as “mere baby steps”.
The major amendments include provisions to do way with the annual renewal of printing licences and publication permits as well as remove the absolute discretion of the minister on deciding whether to approve new applications or revoke existing ones.
“The Bill is to be debated in such a short time shows that the government is not interested in political transformation and the amendments were done without consultation, all the talk of transformation is just political mimicry,” Lim charged.
“These are just baby steps to press freedom. The prime minister has said under his leadership there is more press freedom and it was internationally recognised.
“Malaysia’s press freedom index was at 122 in 2011 compared to 141 last year (2010), but the question is are the changes in the press index due to Najib’s leadership?
Benefitting from others’ woes
Lim said the that annual press freedom index climbed 19 spots last year “thanks to the downward spirals in the countries being wracked by unrest”.
He said that it was not because Malaysia was better but “because it is worse in other countries”.
Clear examples of freedom being curtailed in the country were the Home Ministry’s objection to Internet news portal Malaysiakini’s printing license and the “hounding” of Nan Yang Siau Pau and The Star for being “insensitive”.
Among others he also said efforts by Media Prima in taking over New Straits Time Press and the appointment of the prime minister’s aide to a senior editorial position, also impinged on press freedom.
“The PPPA in its entirety should be repealed and no newspaper should need a permit.
“There are sufficient laws in place to deal with newspapers that deal with false news,” stressed Lim, slamming the “piecemeal solutions”.
Lim also turned on Abdul Rahman Dahlan (BN-Kota Belud) for tagging the DAP parliament leader as a racist.
Smear bid blows up in face
The BN MP labelled Lim racist as such because oft the latter’s tweets on the day of political aide Teoh Beng Hock’s death, calling on MCA and Gerakan leaders to pressure the government into setting up a royal commission for inquiry into that tragedy.
Abdul Rahman had alleged that Lim’s mention of MCA and Gerekan was meant to incite racial sentiments by playing on the anger of the Chinese at Teoh’s death.
However, Lim had come armed with a printout of his Twitter timeline from July 16, 2009, and proceeded to read each tweet out loud in the Dewan Rakyat.
This provoked an altercation with Abdul Rahman and other backbenchers, triggering opposition MPs to jump into the fray.
The uproar forced Deputy Speaker Wan Junaidi Jaafar to step in and chastise both sides.
“YBs (yang berhormat) it is already late at night, some of us may have gone deaf. I think we have had enough fun let us return to a semblance of a Parliament.
“I would like to remind you that while we have suspended Standing Order 12, others still stand,” he said, reminding the MPs to focus their attention on debating the Bill.
Once order was restored, Khairy Jamaluddin (BN-Rembau) took the floor flaying Lim’s remarks about “ultimate” press freedom.
“If I remember correctly the Penang state assembly had passed a resolution to ban Utusan (Malaysia) reporters from covering the state assembly.
“PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim would point to TV3 journalists and call them the despicable tools (alat keji) of the BN.
“This is harassment. Our journalist are prevented from doing their jobs and derided,” Khairy lashed out.
Deputy Home Minister Abu Seman Yusop, in winding up the debate, refused to entertain any interruption from either side, finally putting the debate to rest.
Like it or not, its classic Najib to make these small changes and then sent the PR on them on overdrive. The purpose clearly is to take some winds off the criticism and opposition.
The point is not fundamental change but rather enough defense to stay in power. Like it or not, it makes real sense for him given his mediocrity. Get enough fools to do what you want, and it will be enough for him..
///“The Bill is to be debated in such a short time shows that the government is not interested in political transformation……”///
The Bill is to be debated in such a short time because the 13th GE is just around the corner. Perhaps Najib thinks that his party would fare better in the coming GE if he could announce many reforms all at once in the last minute before people go to the polls.
I really wonder why PR MPs supported BN’s move to ‘stop the clock’ and let the day run up to 27 or 28 hours or so for April 19.
Earlier PR MPs had complained that the BN was rushing and bulldozing a whole bundle of Bills for Parliament’s approval on the last day of sitting. They had complained that this was done for the benefit of the BN itself for the coming 13th GE. They had complained that they had no time to study the Bills in detail and to provide meaningful debates.
Yet when the clock began to strike 12 midnight, it was stopped to extend the day beyond 24 hours.
Why didn’t the PR MPs object to it? They could have played a number on the BN by suddenly mustering enough members to defeat the motion. There were not many BN MPs present and certainly not many MPs present at that time to provide meaningful debates on the important and seemingly obnoxious Bills.
Let the Bills be not pas.ed and transferred to the next sitting or next Parliament.
By extending the time, the PR MPs could themselves be blamed for the pas.age of these Bills.