THE spotlight shone yesterday on Anwar Ibrahim in the Dewan Rakayat. A successful confidence vote sanitised the prime minister’s initially stained introduction, due to pushback, to power in the public light, inspiring faith in the parliamentarians and the people of the country.

We ought to expect future criticism of the prime minister as free and open dialogue is crucial to democracy. While light isn’t so much the issue, how it’s shone is. 

Recently Communications and Digital Minister Fahmi Fadzil reminded Malaysians that the unity government is committed to media freedom. This was issued with a strict caveat: while criticism is tolerated, incendiary accusations, defamatory statements and outright falsehoods are not. 

Placing the unity government under the light of public inspection ensures transparency and accountability, reinforcing the burden of scrutiny that must be shouldered by those in power if they are to be trusted. However, the torch afforded to the people in to bring the government to light should not be conflated with the malicious act of blinding the government’s eyes in order to throw it off balance. Malaysia is already in a fragile and vulnerable state. If the actions orchestrated by certain people are designed only to besmirch and to defame the unity government with the intent of destabilising or causing a schism in the leadership, the country will be brought to ruin. 

Post-general election, Malaysians saw the bombardment of dangerous rhetoric at the prime minister, accusing him of colluding with foreign powers to institute anti-Malaysian ideologies. Those criticisms serve only to incite tensions. There were those who, desiring to deny the unity government of legitimacy, spewed unfiltered vitriol instead of good-hearted discussion. The decision of the prime minister to have his government subject to a vote of confidence affirmed the veracity of the unity government’s claim of majority support.

 Malaysian democracy has been fitted with the parameters for criticism. It is only by being mindful of these boundaries that we see the maturation of the political consciousness of all Malaysians.  The motivation for criticism of the government doesn’t always stem from ill will as many sincerely act out of a desire to develop the nation. It is important that we remind ourselves that supporting the unity government does not imply a harmonisation of differing political beliefs. We may continue to voice our differing interests even if they are critical of the government. However, we must be mindful of the way in which we exercise this prerogative. 

There will undoubtedly be critics who will continue to bring the nation’s leadership’s actions to light. The prime minister and his government must brace for quite the summer ahead of them. Let there be light but let there also be caution. – December 20, 2022.

* Pravin Periasamy reads The Malaysian Insight.
 

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.