On the 20th of June 2014, i had the privileged to attend a forum organised by the British Council and University of Nottingham titled "Handling The Heat: Is Media Freedom A Requirement for Democracy?” The key speakers of the forum were Urban Well-being, Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan and Pandan Member of Parliament Rafizi Ramli. During that forum, two (2) things caught my attention.
First, the explanation given by Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan on the issues related to "Media Freedom" and what the government has done and will do to demonstrate that it is committed to its no-censorship rule. According to Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan, the government has always been positive on the development and expansion of both the print and social media as it makes citizens become more informed and objective when it comes to decision making process.
In addition, in the last four years, action taken on print press were merely advisory as opposed to permanent suspensions or even revoking of print licenses. Furthermore, only nine show-cause letters were issued to print companies, largely due to significant breach in licensing such as not notifying the home ministry about changes in ownership and editorial. In plain terms, the government under Prime Minister Datuk Seri Haji Najib Tun Razak has never barred or revoked any print or social media news portal in his tenure even-though it is open knowledge that some of these so called news portal constantly attacks the government in their reporting.
Second, during the Question and Answer (Q & A) session someone from the crowd had asked the Pandan Member of Parliement (MP) Rafizi Ramli on why does he ban/bar people from his twitter account. The response from Rafizi Ramli was shocking and even hypocritical. Rafizi Ramli said that his twitter account is a personal account and it is for him to interact with his followers. Now i have a problem with that answer because it shows that Rafizi is not honest and he is being a hypocrite.
If you go through the forum video above, you would notice that time and again Rafizi has been talking about "Freedom of Speech" and "Media Freedom" but at the same time when someone ask him why does he bar people from his twitter account, his answer just did not make any sense and goes against what he was preaching earlier. Is not that a sign of a hypocrite.?
It is very disappointing to see that Rafizi Ramli does not apply what he preaches to the public. It shows that there is no honesty in what he does, or he actually does not believe in "Freedom of Speech" and "Media Freedom" as even he himself could not take the heat that is coming from the public.
To those of you who are following Rafizi Ramli at @rafiziramli, please do ask him why does he blocks his twitter followers will you? I was blocked a few months,maybe years back and could not ask him anything anymore. Lucky him actually if not i would have teared him apart.
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