The Other Column That Wasn’t
By David D. Mathew
This article was meant to appear in Sin Chew Jit Poh on the 9th March 2010. Instead it fell victim to the oft-wielded Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984, which incidentally is the subject of this spiked critique.
The following should have been my column for Sin Chew on Monday. They refused to publish it. Another victim of the chilling and arbitrary Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984.
Behind the grey mist of news reports concerning the supposed chaos within the ranks of the opposition, a grave danger has crept up almost unnoticed upon our constitutional guarantee of the freedom of speech.
Approximately two weeks ago, The Star was issued with a show cause letter from the Home Ministry. It gave the newspaper 14 days to reply as to why action should not be taken against it for publishing P. Gunasegaram’s article titled Persuasion, not compulsion which centered around the caning of three Muslim women for engaging in illicit sex.
Chilled by this threat from the Government, The People?s Paper apologized and further reacted last week by spiking Marina Mahathir’s article.
Marina, who refers to the article as The Column That Wasn?t, wrote about the jurisdictional power of the Syariah Courts and the problems caused by Article 121 (1A) of the Federal Constitution. She also touched on the caning issue and some of the differences between the legislative processes behind the enactment of civil laws and Syariah laws.
Censorship offends the intelligence of the Malaysian people. It assumes that Malaysians are not able to think for themselves and respond to positions that they disagree with through rational debate. Censorship further cripples our ability to counter and respond to statements made by individuals and organizations that carry a different opinion.
In this regard, Utusan Malaysia has, for example, carried news reports, interviews and opinion pieces in support of the caning of Muslim women so why can’t others respond with their own points of view? Why can’t another Muslim like Marina Mahathir question the manner of enforcement of Syariah punishments in this country? Why can’t P. Gunasegaram give his own views from the perspective of a non-Muslim?
