This came in response to Gerakan chairperson Teng Chang Yeow’s claim that the people in Penang could not criticise the state leadership or they would find themselves prosecuted.
“This is a democracy. We need to open up the public sphere for people to criticise what they think is not right,” said Unimas lecturer Jeniri Amir.
He said that opening up the public sphere will turn the political discourse into “a marketplace of ideas”.
However, he warned that criticism should be done in good faith and not for bad intentions.
“Whoever criticises should be responsible and not criticise for the sake of criticising because they have to remember that legal action can be taken against them under the Defamation Act 1957.”
He said this lack of openness could be found on both sides of the political sphere.
“The government has taken stern action against critics of 1MDB and as for the opposition, it seems that those in Penang are not very open to criticism while they have been criticising Barisan Nasional (BN) left and right. This will certainly look bad for Lim Guan Eng’s and DAP’s reputation.”
Meanwhile, Awang Azman Pawi of Universiti Malaya said it seemed as though power was slowly getting to the opposition’s heads.
“In Malaysian politics, the opposition have criticised BN over things that BN really didn’t want to hear. However, several episodes have shown that the state governments ruled by the opposition parties have shown signs of having this same syndrome,” he said.
He agreed with Jeniri that criticism was an important avenue to provide a check and balance to those in power.
“The opposition and BN need to be more open over constructive criticism.”