Cops may use Sedition Act against online hate-mongers

The Star
by NADIRAH H. RODZI AND CHAN LI LEEN

KUALA LUMPUR: Police are considering using the Sedition Act 1948 against those who incite racial and religious hatred on social media.

It was not an easy task to detain and prosecute those committing such an offence due to the Internet being wide and without borders, said Deputy Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Mohd Bakri Zinin.

Mohd Bakri also refuted claims that the police are practising selective investigation and urged the public not to be quick to jump the gun.

“This is what most people don’t understand, each case is different and has different facts and circumstances.

“We would need to identify the real identities and produce solid evidence before taking action against them.

“Without all that, it is hard to drag them to justice. That is why we are considering using the Sedition Act to investigate these sort of cases,” he said at a press conference after the closing of the Ops Selamat 5/2014 at the Terminal Bersepadu Selatan yesterday.

On Friday, Federal CID director Comm Datuk Seri Mohmad Salleh said the police were going all out to track down those inciting racial and religious hatred.

Police urged the five people identified as online hate-mongers on social media sites to come forward.

The wanted culprits include a woman with the Facebook profile Vignamona VM, who called for religious schools to be disbanded, a man (FB profile Kelvin Yip), who allegedly insulted Islam over the Muslims’ call to prayer (azan), and a man depicted on YouTube kicking another man of a different race.

The other two are a man whose profile name is “Persatuan Kongsi Gelap Melayu”, responsible for posting provocative messages regarding an alleged racial riot in Klang, and Facebook user Mohd Adam Asyiq Balasubramaniam, who posted racial sentiments.

In Ipoh, Perak deputy police chief Deputy Comm A. Paramasivam denied there had been fights between a group of Malays and Indians in Buntong as claimed on Facebook.

“There were no such fights and the Kampung Baru police station was not surrounded by a group of Indians.

“Neither were there fights in front of the Ipoh Railway Station or at the Gerbang Malam,” he said during a press conference yesterday.

DCP Paramasivam said in actual fact, a motorcyclist had died after being knocked down in front of the police station last month.

“A group of devotees attending a festival at a Hindu temple nearby the police station caught wind of what happened and had gone there to see what was happening. There were no racial riots or murder. It was a road accident,” he said.

Kedah ruler: Social media abuse a threat to peace

The New Straits Times
by ADIE SURI ZULKEFLI

ALOR STAR: SULTAN of Kedah Tuanku Abdul Halim Mu’adzam Shah yesterday expressed concern over the alarming incidence of social media abuse, which can pose a threat to racial and religious harmony.

Tuanku Halim said the majority of the younger generation used social media to express their thoughts and views, while respecting racial, religious and traditional sensitivities.

He cautioned that liberalisation, as advocated in Western countries, was seen as modern and open, but it was unsuitable to the way of life in Malaysia.

“Religious and racial ideological tensions in our society, especially on social media platforms, demonstrate disrespect to decisions that had been agreed upon by the forefathers of all races during Independence,” he said in his speech at the opening of the Kedah State Legislative Assembly’s first meeting for the second term at Wisma Darulaman here.

The speech was read by Kedah Regency Council chairman Tan Sri Tunku Sallehuddin Sultan Badlishah. Present were his wife, Puan Sri Tengku Maliha Tengku Ariff, Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir, his wife, Tok Puan Norzieta Zakaria, executive councillors and assemblymen.

Tuanku Halim reminded the younger generation that the country, which gained independence in 1957, was built on the strength of the social contract of a multiracial society, based on toleration, moderation and mutual respect.

“Without the wisdom of our forefathers when we were fighting for independence, many current descendants would be stateless citizens. As such, it is imperative for all quarters to understand and respect basic rights, as stated in the Federal Constitution.”

Tuanku Halim hinted that having a uniform education system could be the long-term solution in resolving the issue.

“Perhaps, we are asking ourselves what is happening to our unity and racial integration. Prominent education sociologist E.D. Hirsch, in his book Cultural Literacy, said education was the most important tool in fostering unity in a country. He suggested that a united society could only be achieved through an integrated national education system.”

Tuanku Halim also expressed his condolences to the families of the victims of Malaysia Airlines flights MH370 and MH17, and urged the people to condemn Israel’s Zionist regime for committing a systematic genocide against the Palestinians.

At the start of the opening ceremony, the House recited prayers for the late former Kedah Regency Council chairman, Tunku Bendahara Tan Sri Tunku Annuar Sultan Badlishah, who died in May.

Who are telling the truth – or who are telling lies – about government’s proposed censorship of online news?

By Lim Kit Siang,

Who are telling the truth – or who are telling lies – about the government’s proposed censorship of online news?

Could one of the country’s top civil servants like the Home Ministry Secretary-General Datuk Seri Mahmood Adam be openly and blatantly telling a lie when he was reported by Bernama yesterday as saying that the Printing Presses and Publications Act (PPPA) 1984 would be amended to expand its scope and include publications posted online and “plug loopholes”?

Mahmood had said that the Home Ministry was looking at the definition of “publication” and whether it should include Internet content, blogs or Facebook to expand the Act due to the changing landscape of the digital era.

Expressing the hope that the amendments will be tabled in Parliament by March this year because “we need to overcome weaknesses, especially those involving multimedia content”, Mahmood said the ministry was working with the Attorney-General’s Chambers to study the proposed amendments.

He revealed that he or his representative chaired a daily meeting at 8 am among his ministry, Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission and the Information Ministry to monitor internet content including what was shown through online video site YouTube.

Could the Attorney-General Tan Sri Gani Patail be telling a lie when he confirmed that the Home Ministry was working the Attorney-General’s Chambers to study the proposed amendments and that his department has drawn up drafts to amend several laws including the PPPA?

Or are these two top civil servants in the country guilty of figments of the imagination with the denial and statement by the Home Minister, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein in the company of two other Cabinet Ministers, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz and Information Minister Datuk Seri Rais Yatim that the government is far from ready to amend the PPPA?

How could two top civil servants who head two of the most important departments in the country make the common mistake that amendments to PPPA are ready for tabling in the March meeting of Parliament when, according to Hishammudin, the proposed changes are still “at the very, very early stages” and it has not even been decided what exactly the amendments will entail?

If Malaysians are asked as to whom they believe to have told the truth – the two top civil servants or the Ministers – there can be no doubt that the benefit of the doubt would be given to the civil servants.

The statement today by the Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Liew Vui Keong that he was not aware of any plan to table amendments to the PPPA in the March meeting of Parliament does not throw any light, as he would probably be informed at the very last minute – not very much earlier than MPs and the Malaysian public.

Like the majority of Malaysians, I choose to believe the top civil servants – as they have no reason to mislead the public like the Ministers, who would have a political motive to deny that proposals have been finalized to extend the PPPA to online publications.

Clearly, freedom of expression and online publication are under grave threat. Is this part of the “political transformation” that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has been talking about recently, after his Government Transformation Programme and Economic Transformation Programme?

Nazri: No media clampdown in cyber-sedition guide

New law to end illegal downloading of music and movies

The Star 
by STEVEN PATRICK

KUALA LUMPUR: The free-and-easy days of illegal downloading of music and movies may soon be over. A proposed new law will enable Internet Service Providers (ISP) to suspend or terminate the Internet accounts of P2P (peer-to-peer) users.

This new law called the ISP Liability act, will be tabled in Parliament next month, according to Recording Industry Association of Malaysia (RIM) chairman Norman Halim.

RIM has been lobbying the Government for an ISP Liability act for the past 5 years as illegal online downloads have been cannibalising the legitimate sales of music, worldwide.

“The act makes the ISPs responsible for curbing online piracy. The ISPs will be fined if they don’t take action against illegal downloaders. The ISPs have the technology to track P2P users,” said Norman.

However, he said that the fine amount had yet to be determined.

ISPs will send two warning letters to illegal downloaders. Should the downloaders still persist, the Internet access will be suspended or even terminated.

“Other countries that have such an act have seen their respective music industries recover. One good example would be South Korea,” he said.

Govt to monitor Internet for 'harmful' blogs

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia has formed a task force to scour the Internet for blog postings deemed harmful to national unity, authorities said today in the latest of a series of actions against the new media.

Home Ministry deputy secretary-general (security) Abdul Rahim Mohamad Radzi said the unit would involve the police, Internet regulators, the information ministry and the attorney-general's chambers.

"It is a mechanism that will coordinate these various agencies to help monitor what is being said in cyberspace and to take action against those that are trying to stoke racial tensions and disunity," he said.

Abdul Rahim said the group would also monitor alternative and mainstream media for similar content.

"There is a disturbing trend now appearing on the Internet where some people are inciting racial unrest and causing confusion and this will damage the peace we have in the country," he added.

Abdul Rahim cited the recent case of a Facebook page that insulted Muslim Malays. They make up the majority of Malaysia's multicultural population, alongside large ethnic Chinese and Indian communities.

Police are also investigating ethnic Chinese rapper Wee Meng Chee for sedition, after he posted a three-minute rap on YouTube criticising a Malay headmistress accused of making racial slurs against minority students.

The government has ordered a probe into the case which caused anger among Malaysia's minorities, who complain their rights are being eroded as the country becomes increasingly "Islamised".

In another case, Malaysian journalist Irwan Abdul Rahman was charged this week over a satirical blog which made fun of the state power firm Tenaga, and faces a year's jail if convicted.

The prosecution caused a stir because unlike the mainstream press, the web and online media in Malaysia have remained relatively free, despite occasional raids, bans and government criticism.

Major newspapers and broadcasters are closely linked with the ruling coalition, so the Internet has become a lively forum for dissent and debate.

The government in 1996 pledged not to censor online content as part of a campaign to promote its information technology sector.

- AFP

Malaysia's Uneasy Dance with the Web

(Asia Sentinel) Are authorities about to start to filter Internet journalism?

On July 31, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, who is rapidly becoming the stormy petrel of Malaysian politics, made a tough, uncompromising speech to the annual Malaysian Student leaders Summit in Kuala Lumpur.

The 72-year-old Razaleigh, an elder statesman of the United Malays National Organization, called for the abolition Malaysia's Internal Security Act, the Official Secrets Act, the Printing and Publication Act and the Universities and Colleges Act, which circumscribes the freedom of expression of students and professors and which, Razaleigh said, "has done immense harm in dumbing down our universities."

It was a major speech on an important occasion to Malaysia's future leaders. Other speakers included members of the judiciary, presidents of bar councils and many others. (It can be found here in its entirety)

"Billions have been looted from this country, and Billions more are being siphoned out as our entire political structure crumbles. Yet we are gathered here in comfort, in a country that still seems to 'work': Most of the time," Razaleigh said. "This is due less to good management than to the extraordinary wealth of this country. You were born into a country of immense resources, both natural, cultural and social. We have been wearing down this advantage with mismanagement and corruption. With lies, tall tales and theft. We have a political class unwilling or unable to address the central issue of the day because they have grown fat and comfortable with a system built on lies and theft."

Razaleigh's speech, controversial as it was, was not mentioned anywhere in the nation's mainstream press, despite the fact that among other things, he said that "over the last 25 years, much of the immense wealth generated by our productive people and our vast resources has been looted."

Despite the fact that no newspapers printed any of the speech, Rejal Arbi, the former editor of the Malay language Berita Harian who is now a columnist, thought it merited exposure. However, Mior Kamarulbaid, the editor of the paper, thought otherwise. He spiked Rejal's column.

Berita Harian is owned by UMNO, which is increasingly unsettled by Razaleigh's calls to clean out the endemic corruption in the party. Likewise, The Star, which is owned by the Malaysian Chinese Association, the second-biggest component of the Barisan Nasional, the ruling national coalition, didn't carry Razaleigh's remarks, nor did the New Straits Times, which is also owned by UMNO. Nor was it carried on the party-owned television stations.

However, it was carried widely on Internet news sites, including being streamed on the independent Malaysiakini television. It was carried verbatim on the Internet-based news portal Malaysian Insider, among other Internet sites.

This has assumed increasing importance because of an Aug. 16 report in the independent Internet news site Malaysian Insider that the administration of Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak is evaluating the feasibility of putting an Internet filter in place to block so-called "undesirable websites."

According to the report, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission commissioned the Malaysian arm of KPMG, the accounting and advisory firm, to carry out a "'Study on Positive and Safe Use of the Internet' in early August to evaluate, among others, "the implementation of Internet Filter at Internet Gateway level" and "the impact of the various methods to Malaysian Internet users and Malaysia economy.'"

A year ago, the government backed away from a similar plan for a filter to block websites it considered undesirable. After the story became public, Najib denied there was any plan to police the Internet. Although the rationale cited for such a filter is usually to keep pornography away from the nation's youth, it can be used to block undesirable political comment as well. In Thailand today, for instance, at least 13,000 websites have been blocked by the government, ostensibly to block unfavorable comment about the country's monarchy. But in fact, it is being used extensively to block political comment as well.

It isn't clear what the KPMG study will be used for by the government. But when Internet journalism was just getting started in the late stages of the reign of former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, the government took a decision not to place the same kinds of controls on websites that it maintains for the print media, which are onerous indeed.

The Printing and Presses Act, passed in 1984, has been used repeatedly against such publications as The Rocket, the vehicle of the opposition Democratic Party, and others. Human Rights Watch reported from New York in July that "the government has effectively suspended indefinitely publication of Suara Keadilan, the paper of the opposition Parti Keadilan Rakyat" and severely circumscribed the circulation of Harakah, published by the opposition Parti Islam se-Malaysia, or PAS.

As a result of the fact that political parties control the mainstream media, the Internet in Malaysia has come alive, not just with opposition blogs and comment about the government, but with some solid – and some not so solid – journalism. But backing away from total internet freedom today is a difficult thing for any government to do and would generate considerable embarrassment, if not public outrage. In Malaysia, the Internet is broadly regarded as having played a major role in 2008 national elections that cost the Barisan Nasional its two-thirds majority in the parliament for the first time in the 50-year history of the country and delivered several states into the hands of the opposition.

More lately, the Internet has carried extensive and embarrassing reports by The Sarawak Report, a Sarawak-based NGO, of the astonishing international holdings of the chief minister, Abdul Taib Mahmud, in Canada, the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom, which the NGO claims were built on the ravaging of Sarawak's vast natural resources, particularly timber. Not a word of Taib's holdings has been carried in Malaysia's press.

"We must have freedom as guaranteed under our Constitution," Razaleigh told the student leaders. "Freedom to assemble, associate, speak, write, move. This is basic. Even on matters of race and even on religious matters we should be able to speak freely, and we shall educate each other."