Criminalising slander a bid to end criticism of Putrajaya, says PKR lawmaker

Criminalising slander against the government by amending the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 is an abuse of the country's laws and infringes on the Federal Constitution, a PKR lawmaker said today. Padang Serai MP N. Surendran (pic, right) said the amendments to the act, which will reportedly be tabled in the Dewan Rakyat in the next session, was merely an attempt to prevent Malaysians from criticising Putrajaya. Article 10(1)(a) of the Federal Constitution guaranteed freedom of speech, including the right to criticise the government, he said. "Cracking down on alleged slander of the government in cyberspace or news portals and websites as proposed by these ministers will certainly nullify freedom of speech in this country and seriously undermine democracy," he said in a statement. He said the purpose of laws in a democratic country was not to protect the reputation of the government or its leaders from slander, nor was it the government's role to ensure "truth" in social media or on the Internet. He said Malaysians should be allowed to judge what was true and false for themselves instead of having laws to control what was said on the Internet. Any aggrieved government leader could always sue for defamation in the civil courts instead of resorting to criminal laws, he added. "Any attempt by the ruling party to use its majority in Parliament to criminalise criticism of the government, whether the criticism is well-founded or not, is unconstitutional and unacceptable in a democratic system." Surendran contrasted Malaysia's actions to that of the UK, where the government did not even have the right to sue individuals in a civil court for defamation. "The rationale is that the people have the right to criticise the government which is paid for by the tax-payers, even though the criticism is false or defamatory," he said. Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Seri Salleh Said Keruak said last month the amendments to the act would allow the government to block sites from defaming the national leadership. – February 13, 2016.]]>