THE government should fix its shortcomings in managing the flood disaster instead of silencing critics on social media, lawyer Syahredzan Johan said.

He said the government should introspect and improve on its poor disaster management capabilities, as shown in its response to the recent floods, to prevent recurrence instead of engaging in unconstitutional behaviour.

Syahredzan said it was obvious the government was red-faced by the tweets that were critical of its flood disaster response.

“Although Twitter has rejected the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission’s (take-down) request, MCMC’s act (of asking for the tweets to be removed) must be condemned.

“MCMC is still using the same playbook as the previous BN government, that is, suppressing critics,” the political secretary to Iskandar Puteri MP Lim Kit Siang said.

He reminded the government and its agencies that freedom of expression was enshrined in the Federal Constitution, adding that the state cannot curtail the people’s rights as it pleases.

“In a democracy like Malaysia, the people have the right to express their opinion, views and criticism of any government without unfair and unreasonable restrictions,” he said.

He said the government must order the MCMC not to attempt to silence the people by taking down negative comments about the powers that be.

He said the government must respect and uphold the people’s rights.

“Without the people, who is the government?” he said.

Several Twitter users yesterday said MCMC had tried to get Twitter to remove tweets that slammed the government’s handling of the floods.

Some shared a screenshot of an email missive from Twitter’s legal team revealing MCMC’s complaints to the social media giant.

Twitter did not take comply with the take-down request.

It said it strongly believes in defending and respecting the voices of the people and that it is its policy to notify user in question when it receives such requests.

A user called @cheryltanxr said she received a warning that her tweets had violated the country’s laws.

“Some of you may be wondering where my tweet about one of the shelters discriminating (against) foreigners went. Just want to update here that I’ve received a warning from Twitter and MCMC asking me to remove my tweet as I’ve violated Malaysian laws,” she said.

@BadBoy2662 said his tweets targeted by MCMC were those critical of Women, Family and Community Development Minister Rina Mohd Harun and Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives Minister Noh Omar.

The MCMC later admitted to reporting the use of offensive hashtags to Twitter. –  December 24, 2021.