He said while many people were harping on who Pakatan Harapan (PH) would field as prime minister, important issues like aboriginal rights, women’s rights, defence cuts, sustainable development and progressive tax were being overlooked.
“If we’re going to continue this way, we’re not going to have a good future,” he said at the launch of his book “Malaysia’s 14th General Elections: The Big Issues” at Gerakbudaya here today.
Kua also said many Malaysians had spoken up against the introduction of public caning in Kelantan while there was “very little noise” over the fact that another Malaysian was executed in Singapore yesterday.
“We’re talking about one of the most modern, Western countries in the world, Singapore. Another Malaysian has been hanged for being in possession of a very minuscule amount of heroin and yet no one seems to care.
“We hang people for being in possession of a small amount of drugs too,” he said.
“There is, however, a lot of noise over public caning. I’m against public caning too but you have to see the irony in that. It’s a paradox,” he added.
Prabagaran Srivijayan, a Malaysian, was executed on Friday at Changi Prison after being sentenced to death in 2014 for importing 22.24g of heroin, or diamorphine, into Singapore.
It was reported that he had maintained his innocence until the end.
Last November, Singapore hanged a Malaysian and a Nigerian for drug trafficking after their last-minute appeals were rejected.
Meanwhile in Kelantan, the state assembly passed a law on Wednesday that allows for criminals in the state to be caned in public.
Kua said the media had to play a bigger role in highlighting the “important issues” and the public had to be more willing to read about them.
“We very rarely hear about the big issues in mainstream media. The online press is a little more susceptible to these ideas,” he said.
“A lot depends on how people in this country want to reframe the narrative of the future.”
Civil rights activists have been reported to have criticised both the hanging in Singapore as well as the new public caning policy in Kelantan.