A message in candles reading ‘Justice for Anwar’ is seen on the road outside the Sungai Buloh Prison in Selangor March 5, 2015. — Picture by Choo Choy MayKUALA LUMPUR, March 10 — The former United States envoy who started the petition urging for help from the Obama administration to negotiate Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s release from prison said he does not understand why the White House removed it today from its website.
In a brief email reply to Malay Mail Online, former US ambassador to Malaysia John R. Malott said he does not have knowledge of the reasons for the petition’s removal, as no one from the White House has emailed or contacted him over it.
“Furthermore, I have read the White House Terms of Participation, and there is nothing in their terms that applies to this petition.
“So I do not understand what is going on,” he said in the email.
But Malott added, however, that he would seek further information from the White House.
This morning, the online petition urging the US government to make Anwar’s release its top priority in its foreign policy towards Malaysia was removed from the White House website’s “We the People” page.
This morning, the online petition urging the US government to make Anwar’s release its top priority in its foreign policy towards Malaysia was removed from the White House website’s ‘We the People’ page.A brief notice on the White House website said: “The petition you are trying to access has been removed from the site under our Moderation Policy because it is in violation of our Terms of Participation.”
It is not expressly known, however, which term the petition campaigning for Anwar’s release had violated.
Since early this morning, DAP lawmakers have been campaigning hard to draw more signatures for the petition, which was launched by Malott last month after Anwar was sentenced to a five-year jail term for sodomy.
According to the rules set by the White House, a petition must obtain at least 100,000 signatures within 30 days in order to get a response from the US government.
The deadline for the petition to hit the 100,000-signature threshold expires in two days’ time on March 12. As of this morning, over 94,000 signatures were recorded on the White House site before the petition’s removal.
A counter-petition to ask the US government to respect Malaysia’s sovereignty and to stop interfering in Malaysia’s judiciary and rule of law is still up on the White House site, however.
The petition’s deadline to hit the 100,000-signature threshold expires on March 13 and has, at the time of writing, garnered 72,884 signatures.
A counter-petition to ask the US government to respect Malaysia’s sovereignty and to stop interfering in Malaysia’s judiciary and rule of law is still up on the White House site.
