THE Court of Appeal today reinstated the Home Ministry’s ban on the book “Gay is OK! A Christian Perspective”.

Bench chairman Azizah Nawawi and member Wong Kian Kheong agreed to overturn the 2022 High Court’s decision. Justice M. Gunalan was the sole dissenter among the three members of the bench.

The government’s lawyers had argued that the ban was lawful after the Kuala Lumpur High Court in February last year allowed a judicial review for the ban in February. The ban was lifted to allow the author Ngeo Boon Lin and publisher Gerakbudaya Enterprise to sell and distribute the book in Malaysia.

High Court judge Noorin Badaruddin had also ordered the government to pay costs of RM5,000 to the two judicial review applicants. She ruled that there was no evidence and factual basis for the for the ban. 

She said the government had failed to show there had been actual prejudice to public order more than seven years after the book was published.

The author and publisher filed for a judicial review in 2021 on the grounds that the ban was irrational as the book had tirggered no untoward incident. – September 25, 2023.