I refer to the Malaysiakini report Key players to be charged tomorrow.

The derailment of last Saturday’s Protes peaceful assembly against a rise in oil prices may have
been seen as a success for the ruling government and the Royal Malaysian Police.

The protest that was scheduled at 3pm around KLCC was ‘nipped in the bud’ and it was pretty much business as usual without traffic woes for the average non-participant by 4.15pm.

The seven percent of respondents to a recent Merdeka Centre for Opinion Research survey who actually felt that the most important problem affecting Malaysia is demonstrations must have also been overjoyed with this result!

However, would the 20% in the same survey who felt that price hikes and inflation are Malaysia’s largest problem regard the quelling of these protests with impunity a success? Most concerned citizens would probably not agree as there remain questions unanswered.

Given that the increase in oil prices would impact prices and the inflation rate, it would only be natural for the average Malaysian to wonder why a net oil exporting nation like Malaysia is not assuring its ‘rakyat’ of no further reduction in subsidies for at least this year.

With oil prices as they are now, shouldn’t our nation be laughing to the bank instead?

Admittedly, there may be a perfectly acceptable explanation to these questions but the government has compounded the situation by not being completely transparent in terms of the relevant facts and figures.

Merely replying that a reduction in oil prices will ‘bankrupt’ the country as done by the deputy prime minister recently is derisive and dismissive and will inevitably lead to speculation, fear and suspicion whatever the truth may be.

To get a proper response, there was no other real alternative but for civil society to risk life, limb and liberty once again by going to the streets. As expected, the repressive laws against freedom of assembly and expression were used by the government machinery and the result was dozens of arrests.

Had the government been more transparent from the onset, one wonders if such a result could have been avoided.

A proper democracy includes government by the people, where the public participate in a meaningful way and means of information are open and free. Yet, our ruling government feels that there is no need for freedom of information laws and continues to insist on a minimalist definition of democracy that focuses on procedure i.e. the holding of an election.

Unless the government is willing to embrace transparency and accountability in a way that allows free and informed public participation, it would be fair comment to say that Malaysia is nothing more than a quasi-democracy.