Freedom to oppose doesn’t include forcing rep to quit - Daud Rahman

KUCHING: Sarawakians’ democratic right to voice out their opinions to the government should not go to the extent of forcing a representative who was elected democratically to step down.
Assistant Minister in the Chief Minister’s Office Datuk Daud Abdul Rahman who said this also referred to the ultimatum given by MoCS leader Francis Paul Siah to Chief Minister Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud to step down as illogical.
Daud elaborated that under Taib, PBB had an excellent track record without ever losing any parliamentary seat and achieved 100 per cent victory in the recently concluded state election by winning all of the 35 seats it contested.
“Who is he to call and pressure Taib to step down? We in PBB have the authority and we had decided that we still need him (Taib),” said Daud, who is also PBB vice president.
When asked on the current political situation where the people have numerous channels to receive news and information via the Internet, Daud stated that the government does not prevent the people from getting information that they want.
“Nowadays you have blogs, Facebook, Twitter where news can be delivered quickly. The government does not prevent people from knowing what happened as we are a fair and democratic government,” he said.
“But when freedom turns into threat, either verbally or by action, we will let the police intervene and handle it. Sarawakians are a peace-loving people and doing street demos will just mar the state’s image,” he added.
On another note, Daud advised members of the opposition harbouring the same notion as MoCS to learn a good lesson from Barisan Nasional government.
“When Selangor, Penang, Kedah for example fell into the opposition’s hands, we accepted the defeat. You do not hear any call from BN members for their chief minister to step down.
“Taib has brought in many good changes to Sarawak. That is the fact.”
Daud, who is also Tupong assemblyman, earlier officiated at the opening of health promotion campaign organised by Sarawak Mental Health Association.