Home minister, please get tough or step down

COMMENT | It’s a hot, hot weekend and try as we might, it’s not easy to relax. Maybe that’s why tempers flared yesterday when a pro-Najib crew ran into an anti-bossku group just outside the campus grounds of what is still Malaysia’s most prestigious institute of learning.

We know what went down. The Umno gang led by the increasingly reprehensible party supreme council member Lokman Noor Adam assaulted a small group of protestors. 

Not satisfied with scuffles and putting a protestor in an aggressive chokehold, Lokman and Petaling Jaya Selatan Umno chief Mutalib Abdul Rahim went on to harass two Malaysiakini interns. And yes, Sungai Besar Umno boss Jamal Yunos was there too.

The police, to their credit, had taken the students away for their own protection. The attack has now made the news with Communications and Multimedia Minister Gobind Singh Deo leading the way in speaking out against the harassment of journalists.

His words were echoed by a range of MPs from Khairy Jamaluddin and Fahmi Fadzil to Charles Santiago.

As journalists, we appreciate the strong statements, but right now those words are about as useful as the “thoughts and prayers” of the US right-wing after another school shooting. Beyond words, we need action.

The one person best placed to shift the balance is our home minister Muhyiddin Yassin. 

The man who charmed his way into our hearts with his proud declaration of “Malay first, Malaysian later” is in charge of setting the tone for law and order. 

Unfortunately, the message he is sending by his eloquent silence is that right-wing bullyboys are going to have the freedom of the land.

Instead of wasting the public’s time and money (not to mention insulting its intelligence) in investigating the Women’s Day march for sedition, why can’t he open his eyes and direct the security personnel whom he administers to refocus their efforts on the true threats to public law and order? 

Those people who don’t hesitate to threaten violence, intimidate journalists and play on base racist and religionist sentiments to ensure that the flame of intolerance is always burning.

Muhyiddin needs to clamp down on the Lokman/Jamal/Papagomo type goons - all of whom are office bearers in Umno, the party he served for 45 years. 

If he does not, he will have failed in a fundamental task of his, as one of those charged with creating a better and new Malaysia. 

We know he did his part and showed integrity in challenging ex-PM Najib’s handling of 1MDB when the latter was at the peak of his powers. We are aware of his treatment for cancer and wish him all the best on the road to recovery. But, it just may be the case that at 72, Muhyiddin is not up to the demands of the role.

Indeed Malaysiakini readers made this call recently, citing the lack of action under his direction on issues such as the Teoh Beng Hock investigation, finding Indira Gandhi’s child and resolving the cases of the missing pastor and other abductees.

There have been times in the past when I have had cause to wonder about the role of our security forces and the sort of direction they must be given.

I have had my door kicked in by traffic police - I had the bad luck to get lost in Cheras and swing into the correct road just as some VIP’s outriders were clearing a path. 

I was also followed after visiting then Parti Rakyat Malaysia president Syed Husin Ali at his home at the height of the Reformasi era.

When I met Chin Peng and old communists in 2009 to cover the 20th anniversary of the peace deal, there were hundreds of Special Branch officers deployed to keep an eye on a group of geriatics. 

One even introduced himself to me and tried to get me to say that DAP and PKR people might be tied to the Communists, while another walked up and took my photo and a third picked me up at the airport on the way back. 

I wonder if they devoted such resources to combatting the possible influence of terrorist ideas over impressionable young people who support Isis, Al Qaeda, the Abu Sayyaf Group and the like!

It’s time for the Home Ministry to take a firm position and make it crystal clear that there is no place in Malaysia for political thuggery, whether it be against rivals or journalists. If you can’t take a stand, please stand down.

MARTIN VENGADESAN is a member of the Malaysiakini team.