Freedom of Speech in Malaysia Assignment

Running head: FREEDOM OF SPEECH IN MALAYSIA
FREEDOM OF SPEECH IN MALAYSIA
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Introduction
The report intends to probe deeply into the core of the topic namely freedom of speech
in Malaysia. It would first analyze what freedom of speech means and how it is just not a
fundamental right of a citizen of any nation but also can act as an instrument of securing the
voice and opinion of an individual in a free nation. The main objective of the research is to
understand who Najib Razak is and what contribution he has in Malaysian administration to
implement different policies for the public welfare as the prime minister. The report also
deals with the gradual fall in the career of Najib Razak and how he was accused of some
terrible criminal flaws but mainly it talks about how he had been very strict on the media and
especially the illustrators and the cartoonists to have restricted them from publishing
whatever they wanted. It also analyzes whether the measures he had adapted were acceptable
or not and if not then what should have been done. Moreover, it focuses on the reason of
declination of the career of Najib Razak because of some controversy and how he finally
overcame the accusation. The report finally closes with how along with the appearance of the
new face in the government the laws were revised and new actions were incorporated.
Case Study
In order to discuss about freedom of speech the history of the phenomenon should be
clearly stated first. The concept of freedom of speech is not really new therefore it can be
easily understood that the beginning of the very concept must have been witnessed by some
ancient country. Greece, being the first country to introduce and practice freedom of speech
as one of the few democratic principles showed the world how “parrhesia” meaning the
power to talk freely can be implemented in the regular life (Cameron, 2016). Therefore this
was included as one of the rights that the citizens must have.

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The year 1971 has witnessed the process of First Amendment to protect the right to
freedom of speech in the United States. Now it has to be looked at what freedom of speech
means and how much it can be used and what the limit must be, violating which can invoke
terrible discrimination and trouble upon the nation. Freedom of speech implies the right of a
citizen to voice his opinion freely without the fear of the intervention of the government or
any external force without the purpose of reaching harm to the religious belief or sentiment of
anybody or anything objectionable to any individual (Rubin, 2015).
There are different symbolic freedom of speeches like the act of burning flag that
generates strong protest against some action of the government. Now it has to be understood
that not all sorts of speech are protected by the act because there are various form of speeches
that have the tendency to demean or hurt people. Hence some of the speeches that cannot be
protected under any kind of law are threats that are true, intended defamation, act of
plagiarism, involving or indulging obscene materials. Another important thing is associated
with it that is the freedom of expression. The artists might take full freedom in interpreting
new ideas accordingly and voicing their opinions either in political or regional sphere the way
they feel like until it is causing imminent harm.
Coming to the topic of the freedom of expression, the artists and especially the
illustrations of the cartoonists come to the minds immediately. The Malaysian government
has faced a vehement use or rather abuses of this freedom to a great extent that the sixth
Prime Minister had Najib Razak had to enforce some brutal action against the act of freedom
of speech. The government continuously noticed that the foreign activists and the extravagant
and carefree attitude of different vocal civil organizations or independent journalists or
anybody representing the public are constantly violating the freedom of speech and taking
advantage of the freedom in an extraordinary way (House, 2017). The Prime Minister had
directly accused these kinds of irresponsible attitudes to be at fault.

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In the effort to curb down the freedom of expression especially that of the journalists,
cartoonists and the other person who are supposed to point out the flaws made for public
interest, it is a matter of great shame for the government for not being able to protect the
interest of its people (Dey, 2016). It should have been the duty of the government to restrict
the sanction of such arrest and the shutdown of such institute and media houses.
He had rightfully observed that the power of the Sedition Act of 1948 and the
existence of the Communications and Multimedia Act from 1998 were too much violated by
these people to voice their opinion in a random way to hurl improper allegation against the
government (Zakaria et al., 2019). According to Najib Razak these strange businesses were
taken way more seriously and certainly in an adverse way. Therefore the government had to
take some initiatives immediately in order to take a hold on to the deteriorating situation.
Till the year 2013, during the second term of Najib Razak the rights that preserve the
freedom of expression was grotesquely diminished as well as the people were restricted to
voice their opinion freely. Looking at this scenario it might look like the government had
been too strict upon the public because of its merciless arrest of independent artists,
cartoonists, journalists, activists, students or media personnel. However it is needed to assess
whether the citizens were really crossing the limit or not. The government has apparently
over utilized the Sedition Act to arrest too many people at a very small span.
Naturally the people were also not ready for this drastic strictness. An instance that
really shocked the nation was the gruesome punishment of the cartoonist namely Zukifili
Anwar Haque for merely posting a tweet in the year 2015. It not only shook the judicial
system of the nation but also led the system to exercise the Sedition Act in a way that the
nation was witnessing this probably for the first time. His post portrayed that the judges from
the Federal Court had abided by the domineering pressure of the Executive for passing on the