Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) vice-president Nurul Izzah Anwar urged that the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) set up an online petition page, similar to that employed by the US government’s We The People petition program on WhiteHouse.gov.
Nurul Izzah, who is jailed Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim’s daughter and the member of Parliament for Lembah Pantai, said the White House program was a “worthwhile democratic right” that Malaysians should also have.
“White House Petition is the commendable format for any citizen or individual to raise any issues; subject to collecting sufficient signatures to merit response from the President,” she said in a statement, as quoted by The Malay Mail Online.
“Therefore, I call upon our Prime Minister Najib to establish a similar democratic mechanism for ‘We the Rakyat’ to raise any issues with at least 10,000 signatures (as we are smaller than the US) for our Premier to respond to.”
Her statement was likely spurred by the petition posted on the WhiteHouse.gov website calling for the Obama administration to make it a key part of its policy towards Malaysia to ensure the release of Anwar from what Opposition parties have termed a “politically motivated” prison sentence.
Despite having been “accidentally” pulled down from the website, the petition, enttitled “Make the Release of Malaysian Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim from Prison a Top Priority for U.S. Policy toward Malaysia”, exceeded its target of 100,000 signatures when it was reinstated, fulfilling the criteria for President Barack Obama and his administration to issue an official response on the matter.
Nurul Izzah also lambasted Communications and Multimedia Minister Shabery Cheek’s move to criticise the petition, pointing out that a counter-petition on the same website calling against US interference in Malaysian affairs was made up of more than 60,000 false signatures, and was allegedly an UMNO-backed initiative.
“Such comments are merely a belated effort to downplay the fact that the UMNO-backed counter-petition to John Malott’s earlier Free Anwar petition was declared to be made up of more than 60,000 false signatures out of almost 72,000 registered on the White House website,” she said.
The counter-petition, titled “Respecting the Sovereign Nation of Malaysia”, was also removed and later reinstated, albeit with the 60,000 false signatures removed.
More on CoconutsKL:
Plea to free Anwar removed from White House petitions website
After Anwar petition takedown, US Embassy’s Facebook page hit with plea messages
Signed, Sealed, Delivered: The Free Anwar petition is back up on WhiteHouse.gov
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