Making fun of leaders is not a crime

The criminal law should not be used to protect reputations of government leaders.

COMMENT

By N Surendran

It is no business of the laws in a democratic country to protect the reputation of the government or its leaders from ‘slander’ or criticism. Vigorous criticism of government is the lifeblood of democracy. Government leaders who feel aggrieved by ‘slanderous’ statements can always sue for defamation in the civil courts. But there must be no resort to the criminal laws to protect their reputation or the government’s reputation.

Increasingly, the Barisan Nasional appears to have forgotten that Article 10(1)(a) of the Federal Constitution guarantees freedom of speech to the people, including the right to criticise the government in the strongest terms. Parliament cannot pass any law as it pleases, it must be consistent with the Constitution. Article 4(1) of the Constitution provides that the Constitution is the supreme law of the land, and laws passed by Parliament is subject to it.

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. Any democratic government that attempts to criminalise criticism of itself is lurching towards authoritarianism.

Ministers must remember that they have taken an oath to preserve and protect our Constitution; and the Constitution guarantees real freedom of speech, not an illusory freedom subject to the whims of the government or Parliament.

In many Commonwealth democracies including the UK, the government has no right to even 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. Here, in Malaysia, criticism of the government is being criminalised!

Government leaders keep complaining that ‘false or defamatory’ information is being posted on social media or cyberspace, and use this as an excuse to tighten up criminal laws. Government critics then face the full brunt of harsher laws. This has happened over and over again.

Yet, it is no business of a democratic government to ensure ‘truth’ in the social media or cyberspace. In a democracy like ours, the people must be allowed to judge what is true or false. No resort must be made by government to the criminal law in order to control what is being said on social media or cyberspace.

Any government which stifles criticism is a government which fears the truth, and fears its own citizens.

The existing provisions of the Communications and Multimedia Act are bad enough.

Section 233 has been frequently resorted to by the authorities against those who criticise the government in cyberspace. This is because section 233 is so widely drafted that any kind of criticism of the government may be caught by it.

Recently, former cabinet minister Zaid Ibrahim was charged under this section over an article published in his blog calling for Prime Minister Najib Razak’s removal. And now they want to give the Act more bite!

The Barisan Nasional and its ministers must respect the Federal Constitution which guarantees the right to freedom of speech. While that freedom is not absolute, restrictions to the right of free speech cannot be disproportionate or render the right illusory or non-existent. 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.