HOME Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail has come under fire from former educator and member of parliament Kua Kia Soong over the recent raid on a bookstore to investigate if a book on Karl Marx was in breach of local laws.

Kua said Saifuddin’s justification of the raid at Toko Buku Rakyat last week did not reflect well on the unity government.

Last Friday, Home Ministry officials raided the bookstore in Kuala Lumpur and confiscated two books, a Malay translation of “Karl Marx: The Revolutionary as Educator” by Robin Smalls, and store owner Benz Ali’s own book “Koleksi Puisi Masturbasi”. Both books are not on the government ban list.  

“It seems Anwar Ibrahim’s Madani administration is no different from the previous government that banned a course on Marxism run by Parti Sosialis Malaysia,” Kua said in a statement today.

“I do not know the educational attainment of our home minister for him to decide that a book on Marx deserves to be banned in Malaysia, a country the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025 claims to ‘develop 21st century skills such as critical and creative thinking’.

“My one and only experience of Saifuddin in action was on November 9, 1996 when he was one of the leaders who led a mob to disrupt our Asia Pacific Conference on East Timor. 

“Distinguished speakers from all round the world were cowering while Saifuddin and his mob threatened us with violence. Fifty-nine of us were arrested and put on remand orders while Saifuddin and the mobsters got off,” he said.

Saifuddin has that the books would be returned if it was found that they did not break the law.

He said the return of the books will depend on the content’s compliance with laws under the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984.

“The act states that seizures can be carried out to conduct research, reviews and analyses of materials to determine if they contradict aspects provided for under the law.

“If our findings show that the books’ contents do not affect public peace or cause any discomfort, then we will return it to him (Benz),” Saifuddin said

On social media platform Goodreads, “Karl Marx: The Revolutionary as Educator” described the German-born philosopher as a radical educational thinker, examining his schooling and education.

Meanwhile, Benz’s book, whose title translates as “Collection of Masturbatory Poems”, is described as a collection of poetry referring not to the sex act, but instead the practice of self-gratifying intellectual discourse.

Revival of interest in Marx

Kua also said there has been a revival in interest in Marxist analysis since the catastrophic crisis of world capitalism in 2008.

The revival was evident in the increase in sales of “Das Kapital”, Marx’s critique of political economy.

“Young people in the West are especially keen to know the source of the capitalist crisis as workers and other taxpayers have bailed out the banks to keep the capitalist system going amid increasing debt, job insecurity and austerity measures. 

“Apparently, the people who run Toko Buku Rakyat feel the same way,” he said.

He also said that Marx and Marxist thought have always been part of the essential curriculum of social science courses in the best universities of the world, including in Harvard, Oxford, Cambridge as well as Moscow and Beijing universities. 

“When I was teaching sociology at the National University of Singapore in 1978-79, Marx was also an essential part of the curriculum there. 

“I cannot imagine our Malaysian universities banning Marxist thought and analysis from their curricula.

“Thus, the people who run Toko Buku Rakyat should be congratulated for initiating the discussion of Marxism and the analysis of our challenging times.”

He said the government was wrong in the book store being denigrated as the purveyors of subversive teachings. – August 24, 2023.