Pakatan Harapan (PH) came to power promising democratic reform. Once safely ensconced in Putrajaya, however, they have backtracked on one reform after another. Now we are seeing a series of actions against citizens for the most mundane and ridiculous infringements as three recent cases indicate.
In the first case, a man from Terengganu was arrested and jailed six months and fined RM500 for flying an Israeli flag.[1] Apparently under an archaic law – the National Emblems (Control of Display) Act 1949 – no person shall display in public, or at, or within any school, any national emblem unless the minister provides an exemption through a gazette or written permit.
Now I don’t understand why anyone would want to fly the Israeli flag at a time when Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people but to arrest and charge someone for displaying a foreign flag is quite ridiculous, especially given that Malaysians have been flying all sorts of flags and displaying all sorts of emblems for years without repercussion.
As well, in recent weeks, plenty of Palestinian flags have been displayed very publicly. Did the minister give specific permission through a gazette or written permission for the display of Palestinian flags? And what about the Israeli flags that was set on fire by protest groups in several parts of the country; did they get permission to display it before burning it? Are we going to see more arrests for flying foreign flags and displaying foreign emblems?
And then there’s the case of a man who was arrested and is being investigated for “making statements conducive to public mischief” simply for supporting diplomatic ties between Malaysia and Israel.[2]
I strongly support Malaysia’s long-standing policy that there would be no diplomatic relations with Israel until Israel accepts the right of the Palestinian people to their own independent and sovereign state. But I also accept that others might have a different opinion. The idea of arresting someone who happens to hold a different view about relations with Israel, however, is just madness. What is the government trying to prove? Does the government’s support for Palestine trump the rights of Malaysians to express their own opinion about foreign relations?
Interestingly, a couple of days ago, the High Court ordered the government to compensate “Superman” Hew Kuan Yew for the 2019 confiscation of his comic book. The government contended that the book – which painted a glowing picture of China and its “Belt and Road” initiative while putting western nations in a negative light – could be detrimental to public order.[3]
Whether or not we agree with Hew’s assessment, surely he has the right to express his view of Malaysia-China relations. It’s bizarre that anyone would think that his views – as one-sided as it may be – would be detrimental to public order.
Finally, there’s the case of a Cambodian woman and her son who were arrested for remarking that Malays are lazy.[4] Again, it’s a damn silly thing to say simply because it’s wrong and racist to boot. But Dr Mahathir has been saying the same thing for years; [5] how come no action has been taken against him?
Besides, people like Abdul Hadi Awang have been saying nasty things about non-Malays and non-Muslims for years without sanction. He has said, for example, that non-Muslims are the root cause of corruption in Malaysia.[6] A year later, he said that non-Muslims were the “biggest plunderers” for giving and receiving bribes.[7] So far he has not been charged with “making comments with intent to incite a class or community of persons” – the charge that has been levelled against the Cambodian woman.
What we are seeing here is a pattern of selective prosecution; it comes down to who is breaking the law. If it’s someone like Mahathir or Hadi, they get a free pass; if it’s an ordinary citizen the full weight of the law is applied to them. When justice is selectively applied, it becomes a tool of oppression and intimidation.
What’s worse, while ordinary citizens get investigated, reprimanded and hauled up to court, those charged with serious crimes of corruption, money laundering and abuse of power seem to be let off the hook with sickening regularity.
Is this what the PH now stands for? And please, don’t disgust me further by coming up with that asinine excuse I hear so often from PH supporters that the current government is a coalition government not a reformasi government. Whatever a government may call itself, there’s never an excuse for the selective application of the law, never an excuse to harass citizens for the most trivial of issues.
[Dennis Ignatius | Kuala Lumpur | 08 December 2023]
[1] Man jailed 6 months for flying Israeli flag | FMT |20 November 2023
[2] Man arrested over statement supporting diplomatic ties between Malaysia, Israel |The Star |06 Dec 2023
[3] Govt must pay RM51,000 to ‘Superman’ Hew over 2019 book ban | FMT |07 December 2023
[4] Cambodian woman, son to appear in court over alleged racial slur |FMT | 06 December 2023
[5] Dr M takes jab at ‘lazy, untrustworthy’ Malays |NST |09 September 2018
[6] Non-Muslims the root of corruption? I’ll explain in court, says Hadi |The Star |03 September 2022
[7] Hadi must name non-Muslim ‘plunderers’ who’ve been conning Malays for over half century | Focus Malaysia |10 May 2023
Dennis Ignatius 
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