Friday, August 29, 2008

Snippets

7btc
As posted by Dr. Mahathir Mohamad at www.chedet.com on August 29, 2008 12:44 PM

Kebebasan Media

1.Selepas pengumuman Barisan Nasional kalah di Permatang Pauh pemberita datang ke Yayasan Kepimpinan Perdana dan mendesak supaya saya adakan satu sidang akhbar.

2.Dalam sidang akhbar itu saya secara terus terang berkata sidang akhbar tidak berguna kerana mereka tidak akan dibenar melaporkan jawapan-jawapan saya melainkan yang boleh diputar supaya ternampak saya menyokong Dato Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi dan Kerajaannya.

3.Seperti yang saya jangka laporan yang dibuat berlainan dengan apa yang saya perkatakan.

4.Ditanya berkenaan dengan penurunan harga minyak, saya jawab yang ini ada kaitan dengan Permatang Pauh. Kita patut ada lebih banyak pilihanraya kecil supaya harga minyak dikurangkan lagi.

5.Yang dilapor ialah saya berkata penurunan harga minyak adalah baik untuk rakyat. Itu sahaja.

6.Saya juga ditanya tentang apakah perancangan saya selepas Permatang Pauh. Apakah saya akan kembali ke UMNO?

7.Saya ingatkan mereka bahawa saya keluar UMNO dengan bersyarat. Saya akan mohon kembali ke UMNO jika Dato Seri Abdullah tidak lagi menjadi presidennya, iaitu jika dibenar.

8.Apabila saya kembali saya akan turun padang dan bekerja keras untuk menarik balik bekas-bekas penyokong UMNO dan BN yang telah sokong parti lawan dalam Pilihanraya Umum ke-12.

9.Saya juga jelaskan yang kerja ini memerlukan masa. Kalau kepimpinan bertukar pada Jun 2010, tidak ada masa untuk pulih parti sebelum Pilihanraya Umum ke- 13.

10.Semua ini tidak sedikitpun dilapor dalam mana-mana akhbar atau televisyen. Inikah yang dikatakan kebebasan media yang dijanjikan oleh Dato Seri Abdullah?

Blocking Blogs

1. When a Government makes a promise to the country and then reneges on its promise, then not only will the Government lose credibility but also any respect that the public may have for it.

2. I do not often agree with Malaysia-Today.net and Raja Petra Kamaruddin. He had been sometimes quite irresponsible. But court action had already been taken against him. He is not above the law and if he is found guilty there are already adequate punishment that can be passed against.

3. But to break a promise and to openly show that you can meddle with the security of the internet is to expose a degree of oppressive arrogance worthy of a totalitarian state.

4. I had once before written to a Government Minister that Malaysia has become a police state because the Government instructed the police to call up people who invited me to give talks and coerce them into withdrawing their invitation. The police is not supposed to do that. When the Government makes use of the police for extralegal work then the Government is guilty of abuse of power.

5. The Minister simply replied that I had retired and it was better for me to literally shut up.

6. Now this blockage of the blog is another evidence that this has become an authoritarian state, elections notwithstanding.

7. Where are we heading? The censorship of news in the mainstream media is known to the public. Certainly I know of the blackout on me and the spins on any news about me. Now this.

8. I know that things have been engineered to ensure Khairy Jamaluddin will win as UMNO Youth leader and Dato Seri Abdullah Badawi as President. Democracy in UMNO is dead. And when democracy dies in UMNO, the party itself will die.

9. I would like to say this to the Prime Minister and his minions. You may have the power now. But as in five States, you may lose power some day. And this will certainly happen because of your obsession to block all contrary opinion from being heard. It will blind you to the reality of the situation so that you will continue to do wrong things and the people will reject you totally.