Commentary by Mustafa K. Anuar

IT seems surreal that Home Ministry officials of the Madani government has recently raided a bookshop in Kuala Lumpur to remove titles they consider unsuitable for the public gaze.

Without prior notice and explanation, they seized “Marx the Revolutionary Educator” (Marx Sang Pendidik Revolusioner) by Robin Smalls and “Masturbation Poetry Collection” (Koleksi Puisi Masturbasi) written by Benz Ali, the bookstore owner himself.

The confiscation comes under the purview of Printing Presses and Publications Act (PPPA) 1984.

Writer Benz protested against the seizure because, according to him, the books are not on the ban list.

What also irked him, and rightly so, is the ugly irony that the seizure occurred under an administration that is said to be reformist.

It is a step backwards by a supposedly forward-looking government. It harks back to the bad old days of Barisan Nasional when the law was abused to curb criticism of the government and press freedom, an action that was fiercely condemned by the opposition at the time. The latter had called for the repeal of the undemocratic law.

To be sure, one of the promises in Pakatan Harapan’s 2018 manifesto was to repeal the PPPA.

Book banning is reflective of a regime that is insecure, unenlightened, and autocratic.

A book ban is bad optics, particularly to university students who have recently been urged to acquire a critical mind and exercise free speech.

An administration that professes to advocate freedom of expression and intellectual robustness should instead provide democratic space for civilised dialogue. Such an approach would be far more instructive for Malaysians, who deserve to be treated like thinking people.

That the seized books are not on the list of banned items has made some people curious whether the raid was the work of overzealous civil servants. Or was it fully endorsed by the Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution?

Whatever the case may be, the ministry owes Benz and the people an explanation.

Furthermore, such an action gives rise to the suspicion that the government is trying to burnish its Islamic credentials in the wake of the “green wave” that swept the Malay heartland in recent elections.

Indeed, the banning of such books in the Malay language – and not in English – is likely to be seen in this larger context.

Surely, this is not the way to encourage the use of the national language, especially if it is to be the medium of knowledge and intellectual exchanges.

Having said that, it is absurd to ban books and other items in the age of the internet, a time when information can be accessed at the click of a button.

Proscription often has the opposite effect of arousing curiosity and making the forbidden items even more highly sought after

The raid came on the heels of another ban, under the same PPPA, on the wearing of watches considered to be representative of the LGBT. 

Let such bans be a thing of the dark past. – August 20, 2023.