Sedition Act crackdown denying Malaysians freedom of speech
Critics, including the US embassy in Kuala Lumpur, say widespread use by the ruling party of Malaysia's Sedition Law is shackling freedom of speech in the country
A Malaysian government crackdown under its colonial-era Sedition Act is creating a climate of fear in the country, according to rising numbers of critics who say it could stunt a recent flowering in freedom of speech.
About 40 people – mostly opposition politicians including leader Anwar Ibrahim, but also student activists, lawyers, academics and a journalist – have been investigated, charged or convicted under the act this year, commentators say.
The crackdown, accelerating in recent weeks, is widely seen as an attempt by Malaysia’s long-standing regime to reverse several recent years of increasingly boisterous speech that has coincided with tremendous electoral gains by the opposition.
“It has a chilling effect,” said Ibrahim Suffian, head of the independent pollster Merdeka Centre, who adds that many Malaysians are beginning to “self-censor”.
“I think we haven’t seen the worst of things.”
The act outlaws speech deemed to incite unrest or insult Muslim-majority Malaysia’s largely ceremonial Islamic royalty. Breaching it can result in three years of jail.
International organisations have condemned the crackdown, including a group of United Nations human rights experts who said last week it “threatens freedom of expression by criminalising dissent”.