Minister criticises US over temporary removal of online petition

KUALA LUMPUR: The Communications and Multimedia Ministry has questioned the United States' information technology credibility over the one day removal of the online petition for the White House to intervene in Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's imprisonment.
Its minister, Datuk Seri Ahmad Shabery Cheek, said the statement by the US embassy here had implicated a weak IT system in the White House website.
"The US embassy has acknowledged its mistakes, but everything has changed in a day, now, they have reopen the petition," he said when met by reporters at Parliament lobby here today.
The US embassy here issued a statement over the petition removal on its Facebook page today.
To account for the error, the White House has since re-enabled the petition titled "Make the Release of Malaysian Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim from Prison a Top Priority for US Policy Towards Malaysia," and is extending the deadline in view of the time lost while the petition was disabled. No signatures were removed.
Shabery voiced his concerned as the removal of the petition could be a personal interest of someone from the US to interfere in Malaysia's national issue.
The 100,000 targeted signature petition which was due to expire on March 12 was removed after reaching the 97,000 mark.
Shabery also questioned the counting system as once the petition was re-enabled, it reached the targeted 100,000 mark.
Meanwhile, Anwar's second daughter and #March2Freedom coordinator Nurul Nuha Anwar thanked the 100,000 people who had signed the petition as well as the former US ambassador to Malaysia John Mallot for initiating the petition.