STOP THE HEADLESS CHICKEN PANIC, UMNO! Accept reality - Joe Biden is SPOT ON!

Since US Vice President Joe Biden’s tweets came to light yesterday - UMNO Ministers have come out jumping up and down, shouting and thumping their chests running down Bidden – with some telling the US to look at its own backyard first, while others like Minister Nazri Aziz, making the most childish and irrational retort –  saying that “we would not hesitate to sever ties with the US if they continue to meddle in our internal affairs”.

Instead of overreacting the way the UMNO Ministers did, they should search their conscience and without lying to themselves, admit the truth in Biden’s tweets – that the Malaysian government have used the legal system and the colonial era Sedition Act to stifle the opposition.

UMNO Ministers are clearly barking at their own shadows and are trying to defend the indefensible. Without a shadow of doubt, so many opposition lawmakers have been unfairly charged or have been threatened with Sedition Act recently for speaking up against the government and exercising their right to disagree with the UMNO BN Government – Even teachers, students, lawyers and civil society activists have not been spared.

Joe Biden

BN Ministers are talking utter nonsense when they defend the government in saying that it has no intention to stifle criticisms of the government, or that we have the democratic space to express our views.

Let’s try to understand why Joe Biden made his statement in the first place. I am sure if Najib had not broken his promise to repeal the Sedition Act, neither Joe Biden or the US Ambassador to Malaysia would find it necessary to make adverse comments concerning Najib’s reversal to repeal the Sedition Act.

Malaysians are not only fed up with the government for using the Sedition Act as a political tool to suppress and oppress the opposition, they are also fed up with the selective use of the Act to silence the opposition and at the same time – to close an eye towards extremists and radicals in the country who get away with making inflammatory statements to incite racial and religious intolerance and violence against the minority.

Joe Biden is wholly justified when he said he is concerned about the rule of law in our country when the legal system and the Sedition Act is being used to silence the opposition. Except for UMNO and BN, the 52% of the majority who voted for PR, are deeply concerned that our government does not uphold the rule of law.

Nazri Aziz

Let’s get it straight, Joe Biden is not attacking Malaysia or its people as what these UMNO goons are trying to suggest. He is criticizing UMNO BN policy on the use of the Sedition Act –  and that’s a huge difference. In the long run UMNO will realize that the Sedition Act will not save UMNO - but will only accelerate their doom and down fall in the next GE.

Gooi Hsiao Leung

Member of Parliament, Alor Setar

PKR International Bureau Chief