Ku Li: Free people from laws that shackle
Jamilah Kamarudin, Free Malaysia Today
KUALA LUMPUR: Umno veteran Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah wants all laws that oppress and stifle freedoms to be abolished.
He said legislation such as the Internal Security Act, Official Secrets Act, Printing Presses and Publications Act and Universities and University Colleges Act are often abused for the interest of certain individuals.
“I ask you to join me in calling for the repeal of the ISA and OSA. These draconian laws have been used, more often than not, as political tools rather than instruments of national security. They create a climate of fear.
“I also ask you to join me in calling for the repeal of the PPPA, and above all, the UUCA. I don’t see how you can pursue your student activism with such freedom and support in the UK and Eire while forgetting that your brethren at home are deprived of their basic rights of association and expression by the UUCA,” he said.
“The UUCA has done immense harm in dumbing down our universities,” he told some 1,000 delegates at the 4th Annual Malaysian Student Leaders Summit (MSLS) here.
Race politics
Razaleigh, popularly known as Ku Li, said that race politics had also impeded the public’s right and freedom to forge ahead in a particular field.
The situation now, he added, was different from the past, during the time of independence, when all races managed to be united.
“Today we are no longer as united as we were then. We are also less free. I don’t think this is coincidence. It takes free people to have the psychological strength to overcome the confines of a racialised worldview.
“It also takes free people to overcome those politicians bent on hanging on to power gained by racialising every feature of our life including our football teams,” he said.
