Dr M: LKY entitled to air views in ‘free speech’ Singapore Former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad took a jibe at Lee Kuan Yew today, saying his Singaporean counterpart was entitled to his opinion in the island republic with its “free speech”. Dr Mahathir was responding to Lee’s assertion in his book "One Man’s View of the World" that Malaysia had become a “much more orthodox” Muslim Malay country since the time of founding father Tunku Abdul Rahman. “He’s entitled to his own opinions,” Dr Mahathir told reporters at Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s Hari Raya open house here today. “We live in a free world where there is free speech, especially in Singapore,” added Malaysia’s longest-serving prime minister. Singapore’s long-ruling People’s Action Party (PAP), which Lee co-founded more than half a century ago, has little tolerance for dissent. The city-state moved to tighten regulation of news portals last May, requiring news websites that attract 50,000 users or more to obtain individual licences and to remove content considered unacceptable by the authorities, according to a June report by the Asian Correspondent news portal. Global human rights watchdog Human Rights Watch was quoted as saying by Asian Correspondent that the Singapore government should withdraw the “onerous new licensing requirement” as the ruling would “further discourage independent commentary and reporting on the Internet in Singapore”. Lobby group Reporters Without Borders ranked Singapore 149th out of 179 countries in its 2013 World Press Freedom Index, four rungs below Malaysia. Dr Mahathir, who is 88 years old, pointed out today that Lee was almost 90. “We give allowance for age, like people giving allowance for me,” he said with a smile. Lee wrote in “One Man’s View of the World”, which was launched in the island republic last Tuesday, that Malaysia used to be “relaxed” at one time. “Now, under the influence of the Middle Eastern states, they are much more orthodox. They used to serve liquor at dinners and drink with you. When I was there, the Tunku would invite his friends over and drink whisky and brandy with them. “Now, they toast each other in syrups,” he added. In a Q&A section in the book, the former Singapore prime minister was asked if Malaysia could become more like Turkey than Saudi Arabia, in the sense of becoming “relatively open, imbibing some of the more international values”. Lee, who turns 90 next month, was also asked if Malaysia could become a “progressive Muslim country”, to which he replied: “You believe that? What do you mean by a progressive Muslim country? “That they will not wear their headdress, that they will shake hands, men and women, and sit down, that a non-Muslim can be drinking beer and have a Muslim sit down and drink coffee with him?”
Posted on: Thu, 08 Aug 2013 15:45:00 +0000
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