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PETALING JAYA: The Center for Independent Journalism (CIJ) has demanded that former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad issue a public apology for a controversial statement he made about the recent religion-motivated attacks in France.
He said that Dr. Mahathir should use his position and seniority as a public figure to educate the masses and advocate for the elimination of all forms of discrimination, rather than abuse social media platforms to provoke and incite hostility.
“Dr. Mahathir must issue a public apology for his comments without further delay and issue a retraction statement.
“Your blog post on the matter should also be removed immediately,” CIJ said in a statement on Friday (October 30).
Earlier on Thursday (October 29), Twitter deleted one of Dr. Mahathir’s tweets, which was part of a long thread, and marked it as “glorifying violence.”
Dr. Mahathir tweeted that “Muslims have the right to be angry and kill millions of French people for past massacres,” he said, adding that Muslims, however, did not take revenge in this way.
CIJ said that while freedom of expression is recognized by international law, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) states that people should be free from incitement to discrimination.
He said that a person of Dr. Mahathir’s public reputation carried with him a greater responsibility to be careful with his words and to refrain from hate speech due to broader repercussions.
“As such, it is alarming and tremendously irresponsible for the former prime minister to spread the aforementioned message, since such virulent and hateful statements can trigger the worst actions, such as provoking violence or imminent crimes,” he added.
CIJ also accused Dr. Mahathir of being a misogynist, citing comments from the former prime minister on Thursday (October 29) that referred to how men and women were physically different and “this limits our ability to be equal.”
He also cited Dr. Mahathir’s comment on the dress code for European women.
“He (Dr. Mahathir) must apologize for his outdated and misogynistic views on women and equality,” added CIJ.
Dr. Mahathir’s controversial tweets came just hours after a knife attack on the Notre-Dame basilica in Nice, France, where three people were killed and others injured.
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