Former Malaysian Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad has suggested the Malaysian government to censor the Internet, citing that “any kind of freedom will always be open to abuse”.
In his latest post on his personal blog, Dr. Mahathir said that the time has come to stop the freedom of speech of the press and he admitted that they need to be censored.
“Not knowing the power of the Internet, I promised that we (speaking as the Prime Minister of Malaysia) would not censor it. But today I have changed my mind.”
“I don’t care how sacred is freedom, but I think the time has come for Governments. At least the Malaysian Government to censor the Internet,” he wrote.
Dr. Mahathir said he changed his idea after his article on Jews was prevented from being linked to Facebook.
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“I have done so because the players, including those controlling the servers have been applying their own censorship of what can appear in this alternative media,” he added.
He also added that the worst abuses were in the field of morality, where the Internet has played an important role in undermining public morality.
“Incest, child sex, sex with animals, sexual parties, sex in public and many other practices which we still feel are wrong will soon be a part of the expression of freedom and equality. All these will promote on the internet,” Dr. Mahathir stressed.
The children, he said are not safe from the filth promoted by the print and electronic media, where children are able to access to pornography of the worse kind.
“Children are no longer safe from sexual assault. So are young girls and boys as the internet arouses the kind of base feelings that we curbed before.”
“Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender or LGBT is openly touted as a part of human rights. We accept that some people are born with indeterminate sex. But now that LGBT is accepted, normal people have also taken up the practices of those who were born handicapped. And worse still certain religions have abrogated the injunctions of their religion against abnormal sex so as to be seen to be keeping up with the times,” he added.
Dr. Mahathir started blogging in 2008 under his pseudonym “Chadet”, which he first used in 1947 in newspapers to express his thoughts on politics, governance, and other international issues. He is Malaysia’s fourth Prime Minister and the longest serving prime minister in the country’s history, holding the post from 1981 to 2003.
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