KUALA LUMPUR – Prominent lawyer Syahredzan Johan has panned the government for forcing netizens to delete Twitter posts which are critical of the government’s handling in one of the country’s worst flood disasters in living memory.
Instead, Syahredzan said Putrajaya should reflect and fix its weaknesses in disaster preparedness to prevent the same incident from recurring.
“It is obvious that the government is not pleased with the people’s criticism of the way they dealt with the floods, so much so that they acted to delete those tweets.
“Although Twitter has rejected the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission’s (remove) request, MCMC’s act (of asking for the tweets to be taken down) must be condemned.
“MCMC is still using the same playbook as the previous Barisan Nasional government, that is, suppressing government critics,” the activist said.
Syahredzan, who is also the political secretary to Iskandar Puteri MP Lim Kit Siang, said that the government should not be committing acts that are against the federal constitution.
“The government and the MCMC should be reminded that the people’s freedom of speech is enshrined in the federal constitution.
“This right cannot be curtailed arbitrarily at the whim of the government.
“In a democratic country like Malaysia, the people have the right to express their opinion, views and criticism of any government without unfair and unreasonable restrictions.”
Therefore, he said the government must instruct the MCMC to stop all attempts to silence the people by taking down negative comments of them.
“The people’s rights must be respected and upheld. Without the people, who is the government?”
Meanwhile, Kluang MP Wong Shu Qi also shares Syahredzan’s sentiments, saying MCMC should be identifying and combating posts of fake news posted on social media.
“During the disaster, many Twitter users shared important information to save the flood victims.
“MCMC should make sure that all this important information is communicated more efficiently and transparently.
“It’s a shame that MCMC chooses to censor criticism only,” Wong said.
On Wednesday, several Twitter users came forth to expose MCMC’s attempts to remove their tweets.
A user with the handle @BadBoy2662 shared a screenshot of an email from Twitter’s legal team detailing MCMC’s request.
However, Twitter did not heed to the request as the social media giant said it strongly believes in defending and respecting the voices of its users and that it is its policy to users if it receives such requests from an authorised entity – such as the law enforcement or a government agency.
MCMC koyak dan complain diatas 2 tweet.
— Joker #KerajaanBangsat (@BadBoy2662) December 22, 2021
1. Rina Harun buat majlis derma banjir
2. Noh Omar cakap PPS tak daftar, mangsa tak layak dapat bantuan.
So far, Twitter tak layan request MCMC. ?
Kerajaan nak tutup mulut Rakyat?!
?#KerajaanBangsat pic.twitter.com/IFDdwGZcE3
Yesterday, MCMC admitted to seeking assistance from Twitter to remove posts which lambast the government for its response to the floods which have displaced tens of thousands of people.
In a report by Malay Mail, the regulatory body said it had to report the use of offensive hashtags on the social media platform to “uphold Malaysia’s laws”.
“It is MCMC’s responsibility to ensure compliance with section 233 of the Communication and Multimedia Act 1998 for the country’s interest.
“Therefore, MCMC has taken action by reporting the use of a few offensive hashtags to Twitter,” MCMC said, as quoted by Malay Mail. – The Vibes, December 24, 2021
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