Freedom of Speech in Malaysia: Najib Razak's Actions and Impacts

This essay provides an in-depth analysis of freedom of speech in Malaysia, focusing on the policies and actions of former Prime Minister Najib Razak. It begins by defining freedom of speech and its importance as a fundamental right, then delves into the historical context, including the influence of ancient Greece and the First Amendment in the United States. The essay examines the limitations of free speech and explores how the Malaysian government, under Najib Razak, restricted media and expression through measures like the Sedition Act of 1948 and the Communications and Multimedia Act of 1998. It highlights specific cases of restrictions on journalists, cartoonists, and activists, and assesses the impact of these policies on public access to information and expression. The essay also discusses the public's response to these restrictions, the role of the internet, and the eventual revision of laws. Finally, it addresses the controversies surrounding Najib Razak and the shift in government, concluding with an overview of the current state of freedom of speech in Malaysia. This analysis offers a critical assessment of the balance between national security, public order, and the protection of individual liberties.

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

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verdict of sentencing five years of imprisonment of Anwar Ibrahim, the former leader
belonging to the opposition party. He was charged with 43 years of imprisonment along with
nine unexpected charges that covers the Sedition Act.
The government not only curtailed the freedom of speech but also the people were
restricted to access to online sites to avail information. Strangely the users of social media
were heartlessly arrested. This is not the sole instance because there are many students,
activists and media personnel who were charged either for their controversial comment on
social media or some activity that deemed the prestige of the eminent personalities or
institutions. Khalid Ismath who was a student activist was alleged for posting a derogatory
comment against Sultan Ibrahim Ismail Ibni Almarhum Sultan Iskandar Al-Haj of Johor on
social media. He is facing 11 different kinds currently for violating the act of freedom of
speech and expression (Sani & Azizuddin, 2018). Fahmi Reza who is popularly known as a
graphic illustrator, posted a clown faced image of Najib Razak on different sites of social
media. He was also not spared. He had been accused with two charges.
Internet plays a great role in opening up of public sphere and challenging the policies
of government or voicing against injustice. However, the Malaysian government has
restricted the use of internet during the launch of Multimedia Super Corridor project. The
restriction in the use of internet is a part of general law which is protected by the federal
constitution under the freedom of speech. The Article 10 (4) explains the reason for the
government to put a restriction to the freedom of speech. It stated that the non-Malays and the
minority community of the state were constantly been targeted with racial sentiments. The
government has also stated that they do not identify uncontrolled liberty with no social
control.

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The drastic exercise of the Sedition Act 233(1) (a) for arresting people from different
background was going out of hands. People were indiscriminately arrested and thrown into
the pit of custody even though the action was not that offensive. Different investigations
showed that the increasing rate of arrest needs further details and address. Therefore the legal
analysis of the Sedition Act in 2017 resulted in the necessity of revising the act which says
that it cannot be used this randomly (Leong, 2015).
The sixth Prime Minister Najib Razak did not forget to mention that there was a great
dictatorship of government legislation on the journalists and the media environment that
definitely resulted in forcing their opinion to channelize through a different medium that is
the social media. There have been instances of incidents which reveals that independent
journalists or activists were prohibited from coming up with free opinions.
The restrictions that Najib Razak imposed on the freedom of speech are the blocking
of the news website Sarawak Report in the beginning of 2015, the arrest of Sarawak’s Report
founder Ms. Clare Rewcastle Brown, the official cancellation of the publishing of two
important newspapers in 2015 (Pitchan et al., 2015). He also strengthened the rules that
would ensure the restriction of freedom of speech in the internet. His effort to curb down the
voices of the common people has faced severe backlash from all forums.
It definitely led them to pile up all the rage and they expressed them either through
illustrations or some defaming comments by posting on social media (Sani, Ahmad & Wahid,
2016). However the Prime Minister did not act in a sensible way that could have balanced the
burning situation. It could have easily maintained peace between the independent workers
and the legislation of the government. Although it is assumed that a smooth demarcating line
could have been drawn yet it did not let the government to go for a more mature decision.

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The blooming organizers supporting and serving people in different possible ways to
secure freedom of speech wrote a letter to Najib Razak for showing their concern against the
current development preventing the right to freedom of speech and expression. They also
drove insane by penalized for protesting against introduction of unethical laws. They wanted
the Prime Minister to look into the matter of the blocking of the popular news website
entitled Sarawak Report which has been in practice since July, 2015. They showed their
concern for the abdication of two newspapers and tightening the authority further on the act
of freedom of speech. Since there was a sudden restriction inflicted upon the berish.org on
27th August then it became too much for the people to digest (Tay, 2017).
They started protesting which eventually was turned down but they appealed to the
government that the restrictions over the online websites should be withdrawn gradually and
the right to protest should not be curtailed at any logic. The workers wanted to government
know that they look for the government to uplift the suspension on the permit that has been
restricted upon the Edge Media, recheck and reassess whether the act of freedom of speech
and expression is exercised in a proper way or not (Anuar, 2017).
Malaysia has witnessed a strange affair of accusing Najib Razak for holding an
account which contained more than billions of dollars. He was accused with different charges
and adversely utilizing the power regarding the confiscation of the state fund is one of them.
Naturally his position in the eye of the public was fallen. The popularity he had gained
throughout his ministry came under threat however his true followers never left his shadow
and finally it was proved that the money that was found in his account was nothing but a
large donation from that of the Saudi Arabia.

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He was the first Prime Minister to have got arrested on September 2019 though he
thought it was predefined by the current Prime Minister Mahathir (Case, 2017). This
definitely proves that Malaysian government would not make injustice to anybody whether
he is a Prime Minister or a beggar. However finally he was pardoned and exempted by the
government because the law scrutinized the case and came up with the result of proving him
not guilty of the accusation.
It is visible that the former Prime Minister had worked enough to make his nation a
peaceful state but it could not have been possible all the time because of the interference it
had to face. This resulted in curtailment of the freedom of the free opinions of the activists
and journalists which led them to express their anger in a vehement way. It became too
obvious that people who were willingly making some educated comments were restricted for
no specific reason would come up with even more horrible content and that only happened.
They started attacking the government on a personal level which according to the was
completely justified. Najib Razak tried to dominate the reverberating movement of the free
workers through the implementation of the Sedition Act but that also did not result in a good
way. The act was exercised in an unacceptable way to arrest abundance of people.
In this context, it is worthwhile to state that the freedom of speech is a right and not a
privilege which the government needs to grant. Therefore, it was natural for the people to
criticize the government with protests because the government failed to provide them with
the basic rights that it deserves. A democratic government is based on the idea of for the
people and by the people, hence it was the duty to provide the citizens with these basic rights

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that include the freedom of speech. The inability and inadequacy of the government should
be criticized that have also failed to meet the laws of international human rights.
Conclusion
Therefore it can be concluded that Najib Razak was partially correct in his position to
secure and maintain the dignity of Malaysian government but the way he executed the plan of
achieving the target of securing the proper freedom of speech was not that fruitful. It had to
be revised during the time of the current Prime Minister. The paper secured the definition of
freedom of speech supported by the rules and regulations commonly in practice in Malaysia
especially during the time of Najib Razak. However, by analyzing the entire report it can be
concluded that the restriction of freedom of speech in Malaysia is not at all a friendly move.
Rather, it has created a situation where the common people have been silenced forcefully.
The democratic aspect has been severely threatened which have also violated the
International Human Rights Law. The upcoming restrictions and the mandate on registration
of news portal in the Communications and Multimedia Act have given a blow to the freedom
of expression. Therefore, it is of prime need for the government to review its policy on the
freedom of speech in Malaysia and bring the people the deserved democratic rights.

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