MCPF: Govt must act fast to curb proliferation of hate speech

SIBU: The Malaysia Crime Prevention Foundation (MCPF) is calling upon the government to act and use all means to prevent the proliferation of hate speech, as it poses a threat against peace, public order and security in the country.

MCPF senior vice-chairman Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye observed that of late, the ‘flames of hatred and anger had been burning more profusely on sensitive issues, together with the exploitation of various incidents that were originally irrelevant to ethnicity and race’.

Before this, he said, the people were more careful with what they would say, tweet and post, especially regarding sensitive issues.

“As a non-governmental and nonpartisan organisation, MCPF wishes to assert that the government should act and be seen to be acting on these sensitive issues on an urgent basis.

“Since the situation poses a real risk of causing unlawful activity or public disorder, it requires urgent action,” he said in a statement issued yesterday.

According to Lee, at present there is no specific legislation to regulate hate speech and offences associated with it in Malaysia, although there are general provisions addressing certain elements of a hate speech.

As an example, he quoted Section 298A of the Penal Code, which says: “It is a crime to incite disharmony, disunity and enmity on the grounds of religion.”

An amendment was later made to include ‘racial feelings’ under the section.

Lee said Malaysia should emulate other countries that had introduced specific laws to tackle such issues – among them the UK with its Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006, which makes it an offence to incite hatred against any person on the grounds of their religion.

“It is important to have a specific legislation to properly and comprehensively deal with a subject matter as serious and complex as hate speech. The law must be unambiguous and its scope must be clearly spelt out.”

Lee said the law must also ensure that any free speech would be constructive in nature and at the same time, it should acknowledge the minorities in terms of race, religion and also gender.

“The judiciary and the government need to recognise that any hate speech plays a significant role not only in creating racial tension, but is also detrimental to the stability and harmony of the nation.

“We must intervene on the aspect of prevention through strict legislation in order to accommodate the currently diverse communities and ideologies,” he said.

Nevertheless, Lee acknowledged that while waiting for such law to be introduced all parties must stop making any expression that simply had ‘ a tendency to cause ill-will, hatred, disaffection or discontent’.

He said as a social activist and a former politician, he had consistently expressed his concern about the inter-ethnic relation problems, which could lead to the disintegration of the nation.

“I have been consistent in my writings and in all humility, I have always emphasised on the need to be cautious when addressing the problems and challenges related to race-based issues,” he pointed out.