{"id":16624,"date":"2023-03-19T17:59:34","date_gmt":"2023-03-19T09:59:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/?p=16624"},"modified":"2023-03-19T17:59:35","modified_gmt":"2023-03-19T09:59:35","slug":"mahathir-says-anwar-shutting-down-critics-after-axing-of-malay-unity-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/?p=16624","title":{"rendered":"Mahathir says Anwar shutting down critics after axing of Malay unity event"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Kuala Lumpur, March 19<\/strong> — Dr Mahathir Mohamad today lambasted the current administration, saying Anwar Ibrahim is becoming increasingly intolerant of free speech by attacking critics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking at a press conference in Kuala Lumpur, Dr Mahathir said he had no proof of who contacted the management of the hall booked by the event organiser, accusing the prime minister of being behind the sudden cancellation of an event on Malay solidarity in Kuala Lumpur.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added however that he believed none of it would have happened without the instruction or approval of the prime minister.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFrom his speeches, I am sure he was behind this ban to close the mouths of government critics,\u201d<\/em> he said at the Putra headquarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sekretariat Proklamasi Orang Melayu was reportedly forced to cancel the event for the second time after the hall management scrapped the organiser\u2019s booking, with no explanation so far.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"mahathir\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

It is understood that Mahathir was to have attended the event in his personal capacity and not as a Putra adviser.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mahathir said some 2,000 participants had been expected to attend the event, which was supposed to begin at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur this afternoon. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He did not dismiss the possibility that it could still be held online. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If they had the opportunity, he said, they would speak of what was \u201creally going on\u201d in the country under the administration of the coalition government led by Pakatan Harapan and Barisan Nasional.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe media is being filtered,\u201d <\/em>he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnything negative about the government is not permitted to be broadcast.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSupposedly this is the best government in the world. But they don\u2019t care about the fate of the Malays.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mahathir also claimed that the government\u2019s efforts to portray Malaysia as a multiracial country were to deny the special rights of the Malays whom he said were the original inhabitants of the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When asked about Anwar\u2019s claim of being the best former finance minister in the country, Mahathir said some were eager for the position as it facilitated the stealing of funds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat have we heard since Anwar became the finance minister?\u201d<\/em> he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA lot of debts. People already said that the PM should not be the finance minister as well, but this is what he has done.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

NMT<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kuala Lumpur, March 19 — Dr Mahathir Mohamad today lambasted the current administration, saying Anwar…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16505,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[524,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nation","category-politics"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Screenshot-2023-03-05-at-6.06.17-PM.png",1164,630,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Screenshot-2023-03-05-at-6.06.17-PM-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Screenshot-2023-03-05-at-6.06.17-PM-300x162.png",300,162,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Screenshot-2023-03-05-at-6.06.17-PM-768x416.png",640,347,true],"large":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Screenshot-2023-03-05-at-6.06.17-PM-1024x554.png",640,346,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Screenshot-2023-03-05-at-6.06.17-PM.png",1164,630,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Screenshot-2023-03-05-at-6.06.17-PM.png",1164,630,false],"newsium-slider-full":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Screenshot-2023-03-05-at-6.06.17-PM.png",1164,630,false],"newsium-featured":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Screenshot-2023-03-05-at-6.06.17-PM.png",1024,554,false],"newsium-medium":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Screenshot-2023-03-05-at-6.06.17-PM.png",720,390,false]},"author_info":{"info":["Editor"]},"category_info":"Nation<\/a> Politics<\/a>","tag_info":"Politics","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16624"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16624\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16625,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16624\/revisions\/16625"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}