Other laws curtailing the freedoms of Article 10 are the Police Act 1967, which criminalises the gathering of three or more people in a public place without a license, and the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984, which grants the Home Affairs Minister “absolute discretion” in the granting and revoking of publishing permits, and also makes it a criminal offense to possess a printing press without a license.

The Sedition Act in particular has been widely commented upon by jurists for the bounds it places on freedom of speech. Justice Raja Azlan Shah (later the Yang di-Pertuan Agong) once said: “The right to free speech ceases at the point where it comes within the mischief of the Sedition Act”.

@Sam wrote:
“If there were no Chinese [Malaysians] in this country, would this country be what it is today? It will be as rich as Haiti or Papua New Guinea? Would Malaysia be prosperous as it is today if not for the Chinese [Malaysians] who propelled our economy? Would there be money to pay the Malay [Malaysian] civil service if not the the Chinese [Malaysian] tax payers? Umno Malay [Malaysians] have become a very insecure race, living in fear [with] no confidence in itself.”

Well, Sam, we come back to this issue again. We all agree that the Chinese, Indian and other immigrants contribute significantly to this country. However, I wish Umno did not make that fatal mistake by agreeing to grant the citizenship to the economic-seeking-immigrants during Merdeka. I wish these immigrants could continue their life peacefully just like the Indonesian, Bangla and others. To Malays, this is their land, and of course they feel threatened to see the descendants of immigrants starting to dominate the political aspects of life in this country. They realise the new generation of Chinese and Indians no longer appreciate the generosity given by the Malays before. And they see Singapore as a good example of what has happened to Malays.

But sincerely, this country will be better developed without these immigrants. The Malays do not need to share the country’s wealth with them anymore, and the people would not have the problem of identity. I would be the happiest person if they decided to return to their motherland, or migrate to other countries. However, as long as we are the citizens of this country, we need to follow the rules and regulations and make sure that we can live in peace and harmony.

The pseudo-intellectual liberal media, of which yours is one, carries on with symbols and statements likely to give rise to such a situation.

The use of the word Allah in a manner likely to give rise to passions and sentiments already near boiling point over the yet-to-be resolved and controversial High Court decision is a case in point.

The exercise of restraint at a time such as this is a sign of maturity and genuine understanding of the issues that divide.

It matters not who is right and who is wrong and by whose standards. It matters that public safety and harmony prevail at any cost till matters are resolved in a more civilised manner rather than through provocation.

[...]

If and when such a situation occurs, there won’t be B52 bombers flying over KL or the Marines or 81st Airborne comming to the rescue. It did not happen in Indonesia prior to Suharto’s downfall in spite of Indonesia’s enormous strategic importance to the US and the West.

Think of those people who are apolitical and who have no interest in these matters in our midst who often find themselves victims of a situation engineered by publications like yours who freely allow the venting of unsubstantiated, provocative material demeaning of others. Think.

Patience must never be taken to be the virtue of idiots. A dormant volcano is only dormant till it explodes.

Gopal Raj Kumar

Q: What do SIS, interfaith dialogues, MLTR, and Herald have in common?
A: They’re all “insults to Islam”!

One day, even not being Muslim will be an insult to Islam. Wait, it has already happened with Lina Joy!

Allow me to add another – the “dumbing down” of the population through the total dismantling of the education system the British left us, and what we have today is just another means by which the elite control the people. After all, dumb people can’t think for themselves, can’t reason, are illogical, and most importantly can’t question and can be easily misled.

Is it any wonder that Malaysia is left behind her peers from the 1960s and 70s – Singapore, Korea, and Taiwan. There’s only so much that a country can do with an uneducated population in a globalised working world. If not for oil, I fear Malaysia would just be another failed state.

Whenever anyone criticizes the policies of Israel, there will be those who play the Holocaust card and the anti-Semitism card. Usually, when this happens, the critics are silenced. In their own way, the Malays have adopted this practice by putting themselves in a constant state of siege mentality, never mind that there is no empirical evidence that suggests they should be.

I call on my Malay [Malaysian] brothers and sisters to stop this practice; stop silencing people who bring up important issues to discuss. It is in our own interests that we face reality and to tackle it head-on. It is simply time that we own up to our supposed “ketuanan” and lead this country out of its terrible state.

No one else will do it and there are no magic formulas to memorize. We simply have to work together and solve our problems.