 Malaysia's Premier is under mounting scrutiny for cracking down on opponents, troubles in a strategic development fund and questions over his family assets, with even ruling-party conservatives questioning his leadership. Prime Minister Najib Razak took the helm of the multi ethnic country's long-ruling regime in 2009, promising to soothe racial tensions and bolster democracy. But Wan Saiful Wan Jan, head of Malaysian think-tank IDEAS, says that Mr Najib is under fire from progressives for abandoning such pledges. Malaysia also drew international criticism after opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim was jailed for five years last week on a sodomy conviction widely considered as politically motivated. |
Save Dissent to Save Democracy THE rising instances of physical violence and threats against political opponents and the inability to accept dissent must raise huge concerns amongst all of us who see democracy as perhaps the really stellar achievement since Independence. AAP’s attack on BJP headquarters and acts of arson committed under the very noses of their elite leadership; the attacks on Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia in Gujarat in the last two days; the recent manhandling of the caretaker of journalist Siddharth Varadarajan’s house by some garden variety thugs; and the violence and threats meted out regularly to their political opponents by political parties is surely deplorable and condemnable. This is a fatally flawed trend which will destroy the very foundations of our democratic institutions if not pushed back with all the strength and condemnation that the civil society can mobilise. Replaying the past To begin with, it must be clarified that we should ...
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