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Abstract
This article seeks to understand the situation of political speech in Malaysia, the argument in favour of restrictions on political speech, and the problems that prevent political speech from being practised effectively. For example, two particularly sensitive issues—ethnic rivalry and religion—are considered taboo and discussion of these issues is severely restricted. Article 10 of the Malaysian Constitution, in reflecting the sensitiveness of these issues, specifies a list of restrictions, which limit the right of free speech on the grounds of guarding political stability and racial harmony. Furthermore, freedom of political speech and the political rights of individuals are secondary to the goals of national prosperity and national development, and the government is predisposed to impose some form of political discipline in order to serve the greater social good. However, the Malaysian government has taken a step further to control not only hate and racial speech, but also any political speech that seriously challenges the government. In this respect, the Malaysian government can be accused of being less democratic for its restriction on political speech.
Notes
1. Kasitah Gaddam, a former minister, and Eric Chia, a former tycoon, were charged in court for corruption. Malaysia's land minister, Kasitah Gaddam, has been charged in court which relates to the share transactions case by the Sabah Land Development Board, of which Kasitah was former chairman. The share dealings involved up to RM40 million. Meanwhile, Eric Chia was subjected to an eight year investigation into Perwaja Steel scandal where mismanagement landed it with debts of RM2.6 billion and losses of RM790 million (BBC, Citation2004: 1–2).
2. In September 1998, when the Reformasi movement became more aggressive, Education Minister Najib Tun Razak threatened to use the UUCA against the students who were involved in the demonstrations organised by Reformasi leaders. This became a reality on 22 May 1999 when the Education Minister announced that two students had been expelled because they were arrested during rioting in a Reformasi movement demonstration in Kuala Lumpur (Amnesty International, Citation1999: 35). One of the expelled students, Ahmad Zaki Yamani Zainon, who was also Secretary General of the Malaysian Islamic Student National Association, said that he could not find a place to study in any local university because of his expulsion (Eksklusif, Citation2000: 10). The fate that befell Zaki has created a culture of fear among students. Shabery Cheek (Citation1989: 7) said that ‘this kind of culture makes students continuously scared or afraid to try questioning, criticising, and expressing ideas or new contribution to the society’.
3. There are currently four demands made by Bersih intended to ensure Malaysians have access to genuine democratic elections. They all relate to the reforming of the current electoral system. They are: (a) usage of indelible ink (which has already been agreed to by the Electoral Commission), which makes it much more difficult to commit electoral fraud by lodging more than one vote; (b) clean-up of the Registered Voters Roll (the removal of, for example, deceased people from this Voters Roll) since such erroneous entries are too easily abused for fraudulent electoral gain; (c) abolition of postal votes that are easily abused (the majority of postal votes at Malaysian elections come from Malaysian public servants working overseas as diplomats or peace keepers, and it has been suggested that these public servants are routinely bullied into voting for a particular candidate by their employer); and (d) access to the government-controlled print and broadcast media for opposition parties, which is perhaps the most important demand made by Bersih (opposition parties need the same access to newspapers and television that is afforded to the government if they are to effectively communicate their policies to the Malaysian people). These demands have been incorporated into the memorandum for submission to the King, Seri Paduka Baginda Yang Di-Pertuan Agong (Bersih, 2007).
4. The issue of blasphemy became a worldwide issue especially in the Muslim world when Salman Rushdie (Citation1988) published his book, the Satanic Verses, in 1988. Malaysia, along with all Islamic countries, condemned and banned the book because it ridiculed the most sacred symbols of Islam and resorted to profanity and insult to the Prophet Muhammad's family (Shad Faruqi, Citation2004b: 20).
5. At first, MSAM lodged a police report on 25 January 2002 against business weekly The Edge and writer Farish A. Noor for allegedly insulting Islam in an article published on 3 December 2001. In the report, MSAM president Abdul Ghani Samsudin accused Farish of insulting the Prophet and the sanctity of the religion by belittling verses in the Quran and Hadith (Loone, Citation2002). Zainah Anwar and The Sun columnist Akbar Ali were said to have ridiculed and disparaged the ulama (MSAM, Citation2002: 2).
6. The PAS Selangor website, for example, has a section dedicated to a collection of speeches, utterances and remarks made by the prime minister and several other cabinet ministers considered to have menghina (insulted) Islam (Maznah, Citation2002: 6).
7. The 11 were the United Chinese School Committee Association of Malaysia (known as Dong Zong), the United Chinese Teachers Association of Malaya (Jiao Zong), the United Chinese Schools Alumni Association of Malaysia, Nanyang University Alumni Association of Malaysia, Taiwan Graduates Alumni Association of Malaysia, the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall, the Federation of Guangdong Associations of Malaysia, the Federation of Guangxi Associations of Malaysia, the Federation of Sanjiang Associations of Malaysia, the Federation of Fuzhou Associations of Malaysia, and the Huanzi Research Centre.
