Blocking access to whistleblower site Sarawak Report is only making Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak look even more guilty, said DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang.
In a statement today, Lim said in blocking access to the site, Najib and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) are "virtually announcing to Malaysians and the world that the prime minister is not as guiltless as he wants the people to believe".
This is with regard to the litany of allegations against Najib over the 1MDB affair, which the PM has failed to rebut, said Lim.
According to the opposition leader, while not many Malaysians read Sarawak Report , the MCMC is doing it a big favour by publicising Najib’s fear of the UK-based website.
"And one does not fear lies and falsehoods, but only the truth!" Lim added.
As for MCMC’s advice to the public to be cautious when sharing information on social media, Lim said this should be directed to cabinet members as well as Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and inspector-general of police Khalid Abu Bakar, who had been "prone to purvey unverified material as gospel truth".
"If MCMC is serious about blocking access to websites which publish unverified information, it would have a lot of work to do, even closing down government and Umno/Barisan Nasional websites, particularly Utusan Malaysia , which are guilty not only of posting unverified information but downright lies and falsehoods.
"My advice to Najib is to allow common sense to prevail, that blocking access to Sarawak Report is not going to end his 1MDB woes but the opposite, plunging his credibility and legitimacy to even unimagined depths, which is not good for him as prime minister and for the nation as well," said the Gelang Patah MP.
Block easily circumvented
Meanwhile, PKR communications director Fahmi Fadzil, chastised the government for resorting to such "dictatorial measures".
"It should confront the issue by either being truthful to the Malaysian public on the issues related to 1MDB as exposed by not only Sarawak Report but also Wall Street Journal and other international news agencies, or by initiating a legal suit against the operators of the Sarawak Report website and confront them in court," he said in a statement last night.
Fahmi also pointed out that there were many ways to circumvent the block, and anyone with a rudimentary knowledge on using Google could probably figure this out.
"This latest act, which came right after (BN minister) Abdul Rahman Dahlan's awkward 'exposé', reinforces the perception among the Malaysian public that the Najib administration has lost too much credibility and must resort to shooting the messengers.
"To borrow from Rahman Dahlan, 'Sadly Putrajaya chooses to ignore the message and instead, vilifies and demonises the messenger'. Putrajaya, listen to your minister and don't ignore the message," said Fahmi.
Abdul Rahman had questioned why Lim insisted on discrediting Lester Melanyi, a former journalist who had "confessed" to Sarawak Report's alleged plot to undermine Najib.
"Sadly, Lim chose to ignore the message and instead vilified and demonised the messenger," Abdul Rahman, who is the urban wellbeing and development minister, had said yesterday.
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