The Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar has today ordered the police to investigate a Twitter user for claiming that the disappearance of flight MH370 was a conspiracy and not an accident.
In a text message to Malaysiakini, Khalid said that the twitter user’s message was “disturbing” and had “bad intentions”.
“We are trying to calm down the next-of-kin. So if you don’t know what’s really going on with MH370, don’t just shoot your mouth off and say something senseless which is uncorroborated by evidence,” he said.
At 11.12 am today, a Twitter User put up a message on my Twitter account alleging that I had caused the May 13 race riots and that on May 12, 1969 I had said: “Melayu Balik Kampong. Melayu sekarang tiada kuasa. Sekarang kita Cina sudah control.”
This was an utter lie and falsehood as I was not in Kuala Lumpur on May 12, 1969. In fact, I was not in Kuala Lumpur from May 11 – 13, 1969 as Special Branch records can prove.
This mischievous and evil tweet is not the first of its kind, but the latest of a mountain of lies and falsehoods against DAP leaders by UMNO cybertroopers fomenting hatred, intolerance and extremism which will destroy Malaysia’s multi-racial and multi-religious fabric if not checked.
Khalid cannot be unaware of such dangerous tweets as I had publicly denounced such chicanery and dastard abuses of the social media several times before.
Why hasn’t Khalid instructed the Police against such Twitter users among the army of UMNO cybertroopers whose only mission is to spread and foment lies, hatred and extremism in Malaysia?
Does Khalid wants me to furnish proof of such mischievous Tweets before he would take action?
There is a strange phenomenon in the past week among the UMNO front organisations and cybertroopers since the shocking statement by the PAS President, Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang that the restoration of local government elections could cause another May 13 race riots.
This has been followed by a systematic and co-ordinated attack of DAP leaders through the social media by UMNO front organisations and the UMNO army of cybertroopers.
Basically in the past week, the UMNO front organisations and cybertroopers have been spreading four lies about the DAP on the “third vote” issue which must be debunked:
THE FIRST LIE is their allegation that DAP is seeking full control of the country through the restoration of the third vote, suggesting that it was a post-13GE grab for political power by the Chinese at the expense of the Malays – even suggesting that DAP was well advanced for such “Chinese grab for political power” as 60 per cent of the state assembly seats in the country are already under the DAP control.
Such lies could be immediately exposed as most preposterous and utter nonsense if reason and common sense are allowed to shine on them, for they suffer from three fatal mistakes –
(i) DAP does not control 60% of the state assembly seats, as all the three Pakatan Rakyat parties of DAP, PKR and PAS did not even win 50% of the total state assembly seats in the 13th General Election. The total number and percentage of state assembly seats won by the three PR parties in the 13GE are 229 seats or 45% of the total of 505 state assembly seats in the country.
(ii) The DAP had never been a party for the Chinese or any one race or religion, as right from our establishment 49 years ago, DAP had been committed to the goal of being a party for Malaysians of all races and religions. In fact, DAP is the first Pan-Malaysian political party in Malaysia, with branches in all the states in the country.
(iii) Restoration of local government had been the objective of DAP ever since our formation in 1966. I made at least two major speeches in Parliament on the restoration of local government during the three-year resumption of Parliament from 1971-1974 – my first term as an elected MP.
THE SECOND LIE – that the restoration of local council elections would benefit the Chinese at the expense of the Malays, ignoring the local government restructuring and the process of Malay urbanization in the past five decades, resulting in Malaysia having 148 local authorities, about 90% of which have Malay majorities of over 50% of the population, while only two per cent or three of the 148 local authorities have Chinese majorities, leaving a balance of 13 with plurality of races, seven of which are Chinese-dominant and six Malay-dominant.
THE THIRD LIE that DAP was “communist” and “chauvinist” in wanting local government elections. Local government elections are also held in Indonesia, Turkey and Iran. Are the UMNO front organisations and cybertrooper suggesting that Presidents Jokowi and Erdogan and former Iranian President Ahmadnejad or Indonesia, Turkey and Iran are “communist” and “chauvinist”?
THE FOURTH LIE that DAP had unilaterally and arbitrarily sought the restoration of the third vote in violation of Pakatan Rakyat Common Policy Framework, when in fact, the restoration of local government elections was in both the Pakatan Rakyat national manifesto and the Selangor PR state manifesto for the 13th General Elections.
In March 2010, the Selangor Mentri Besar and the Penang Chief Minister wrote separate letters in the name of the respective PR state governments to the Election Commission asking it to conduct local government elections in their respective states, which was opposed by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak.
All Malaysians, who believe in the new politics of honesty and truth, must repudiate the politics of lies, dishonesty and hate, and must help to expose and debunk these Four Lies about the restoration of local government elections which UMNO front organisations and cybertroopers are desperately trying to spread in the past week.