Anwar gets his playbook from Erdogan
Declining press freedom in Malaysia following the same path Turkey took
When Anwar Ibrahim made his first official meeting with the press, he came to the microphones talking on his mobile phone to Recap Tayyip Erdogan, the president of Turkey. This was no doubt intended to impress, otherwise Anwar would have come to the microphones after his call.
However, time is showing this was not just a random call to a world leader. Erdogan is Anwar’s friend, mentor, and considered the moral leader of the Muslim Brotherhood.
We are now only just starting to see how closely Anwar is following the path that he is following in Malaysia. This can be no more easily seen with Press freedom.
Turkey is ranked 158th out of 180 countries in the work according to the Reporters Without Borders 2024 Press Freedom Index. Malaysia at 107th place is much higher than Turkey’s position, after falling 34 places from the 2023 index.
Talking to a journalist working in Turkey, the country’s 158th position didn’t come over a single year. The arrests and imprisonment of journalists in Turkey took some time. Turkey started some years old making the discussion of certain topics taboo. Later on, journalists were banned from the media by the government. More than 3,400 were sacked in 2020. Arrests were then made of journalists who made “False (statements), likely to disturb public peace”. Does that sound familiar?
New legal amendments were made to laws that were ambiguous and easy to prosecute journalists on. Journalists who were seen as a threat to national security were imprisoned. Finally, Lese Majeste laws were brought in where it became a crime to criticise president Erdogan.
Social media in Turkey is heavily censored and the banking system has been weaponised against those who criticise the government. They lose access to their funds.
The Turkish government carries out extra-judicial methods, which include abductions, enforced disappearances, and extraditions of those outside the country.
Turkey was once an emerging democracy in a majority Muslim country. Today, the government effectively controls 90 percent of all media outlets. Many were forced to close. Turkish journalists can be the victims of random attacks, were some are taken away in vehicles. Journalists are receiving long jail sentences under trumped up charges such as terrorism and espionage. Arresting and jailing journalists for a day or two is a common way to intimidate journalists.
This was not achieved by the Turkish government overnight. It took them around eight years to get to the stage they are at now. Malaysia is now only two years in and one can already see the signs clearly of the playbook Anwar has borrowed from Erdogan.
Subscribe Below: