KUALA LUMPUR, March 31 — Several Southeast Asian media academics and human rights groups said the arrests of the TMI 5 for sedition clearly advertised Putrajaya’s “desperation” to the international community.
Three of The Malaysian Insider (TMI) editors were arrested on Monday evening while the news portal’s CEO and the head of The Edge Media Group that owns TMI were arrested this morning.
A number of international rights groups have also accused Putrajaya of a targeted campaign to silence critics and ultimately create a sense of futility in order to stifle and shift attention away from criticisms directed at the government.
“Ironically, this show of force by the authorities will only be seen internationally as a sign of weakness,” Cherian George, a journalism professor at Hong Kong Baptist University’s School of Communication, told Malay Mail Online in an email interview.
“Even if articles contain errors, a government’s response should be proportionate. When you treat questioning and critical journalism as a crime, it looks like an act of desperation.”
Agreeing with Cherian was Zaharom Nain, a vice-dean with University of Nottingham Malaysia’s Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, who added that Putrajaya is “nakedly revealing to all” that it is not only losing its grip over the media, but society altogether.
“The main signal the government is giving is that it is getting desperate,” said Zaharom who is also the founder of the university’s Centre for the Study of Communications and Culture.
“Only a desperate regime would start arresting innocent people in some of the most contemptible ways possible, under an odious law when it could very well approach the people and engage in civilised discussions with them,” he said, referring to news editors, politicians and academics.
“They are no longer leading, hence they are reduced to using elements or instruments of coercion to dominate and control society in the most repugnant, undemocratic ways possible,” he added.
A representative of London-based human rights group Article 19 claimed that the arrests were Putrajaya’s way of saying that “no one in the country is safe” when they make critical comments about the authorities.
“The concern with this escalating situation is that the social and political discourse in Malaysia is being increasingly controlled by the government, leading to a singular and outspoken narrative of intolerance for any opposing viewpoints,” said Judy Taing, a senior Article 19 officer on Asia.
Bangkok-based Southeast Asian Press Alliance’s (Seapa) Gayathry Venkiteswaran echoed the sentiment, suggesting a “very targeted” campaign to silence critics who have questioned the establishment over numerous incidents and allegations, such as the jailing of Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and the 1 Malaysia Development Bhd scandal.
“It’s shocking to see the number of people who have been arrested or investigated under expression and assembly laws in such a short period,” the Seapa executive director said, highlighting that more than 150 people have been arrested in the space of three months.
“But that’s the impact they are going for, to create dissonance and introduce a sense of futility among the opposition politicians and the critical media. Interestingly, a similar trend can be seen happening in Myanmar now.”
The Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (Forum-Asia) also expressed its worry that Putrajaya’s apparent reliance on coercive measures — especially repressive laws that are open to flagrant abuse — has become permanent.
“The latest arrests are part of the government’s attempt to silence critics, using the justification that these individuals have raised ‘sensitive’ issues of ‘race, religion and royalty’ that will create ‘disharmony’ in the country — a familiar, convenient, but unacceptable justification”, Forum-Asia executive director Evelyn Balais-Serrano said.
“While the signal is meant to say, ‘no one, including journalists will be spared’, double-standards have been clear, for instance, as seen in the lackluster way the government had dealt with individuals close to the government,” Balais-Serrano added, listing the example of Malay rights champion Datuk Ibrahim Ali.
Last week, TMI ran a report citing an unnamed source as claiming that the Conference of Rulers had rejected proposed legal amendments that would allow hudud to be enforced. This was later denied by the Keeper of the Rulers’ Seal, who also lodged a police report over the article.
TMI’s editors Lionel Morais, Zulkifli Sulong and Amin Iskandar were then arrested last night under the Sedition Act 1948 and the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 to assist in investigations.
The news portal’s chief executive Jahabar Sadiq and Ho Kay Tat, the group chief executive officer (CEO) of The Edge Media Group that owns TMI, were later arrested this morning under the same laws when they went to the Dang Wangi district police headquarters to have their statements recorded.
The trio arrested earlier will be released at 7pm today after police failed to secure a remand order to detain them further, while the latter two are expected to spend the night in police lock-up before being brought to court tomorrow for a remand hearing.
The move has since earned a warning from Umno MP Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed, who said that the federal government may face a backlash from the perceived “excessive” arrests and sedition probe.
Nur Jazlan said he believed TMI‘s report was just an “honest mistake” that could have been dealt with a defamation suit by the Conference of Rulers, instead of a sedition probe.
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