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| Image from Ahram Online |
In recent times, several Malaysian artistes have made headlines for their artistic creations which got them into trouble with the law. Namewee, or Wee Meng Chee, a local singer, director and actor who has several times gotten into hot soup for his past videos (i.e. ‘Oh My God!’ and ‘Negerakuku’), was once again sniffed out by the local police for his latest Youtube video, ‘Like a Dog’. The video, uploaded just before Chinese New Year, featured several dancers wearing dog masks, dancing and at some points, performing acts akin to mating dogs.
Fahmi Reza, a graphic designer and film maker, is now infamous for posting his depiction of the Malaysian Prime Minister as a clown on social media. About a week ago, he was sentenced to one month’s jail and RM30,000 fine by the Ipoh Sessions Court for the offensive caricature of the Prime Minister.
Zunar, a cartoonist known for depicting Malaysian politicians negatively in his comics as well as tweeting his dissent against the authorities, is also no stranger to brushes with the law. In the past few years, he has been charged and investigated for breaching six laws, including under the Penal Code and the Sedition Act, has had his books and related merchandise banned and confiscated at several events, and recently has been charged with 9 counts of sedition, which could land him a maximum of 43 years in prison.
Even ordinary citizens have not escaped being charged for posting derogatory images or comments about the Prime Minister. In August 2017, A roti canai seller, a recruiter and a teenage storekeeper were today jointly charged at the Kuala Lumpur Cyber Court with intentionally posting offensive content about Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak online. One was accused of posting an image on Facebook of the prime minister's head superimposed on a dog's body with the Umno log on its chest and ridden byhis wife, Rosmah Mansor. Another was accused of posting a doctored image of Najib's head superimposed on the body of China's founding father, Mao Zedong. Another was accused of simply calling the Prime Minister a robber and embezzler.
In all cases , the police action and charges against these artistes are justified by the authorities with reference to the Section 233 (1) (a) of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 that criminalizes the intentional creation and transmission of derogatory communications material to hurt another. They are accused of attempting to ‘jeopardize the harmony of the nation’, ‘hurting the feelings of all Malaysians’, and in Namewee’s case, he is almost always accused of insulting Islam.
‘Hurting the feelings’ of all Malaysians… or just hurting certain politicians?
The fact of the matter is that Section 233 (1) (a) of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998, far from being implemented fairly across the board, is only ever used to take actions against artistes who spread derogatory material against the Prime Minister and politicians from the current ruling party, but not if the victims are ordinary people or politicians from the opposition. There have been a number of instances of people making derogatory images of others with obvious intent to hurt and offend, but with no police action taken against the culprits. For example:
· In year 2011, Nurul Izzah lodge a police report due to the mass distribution of booklets containing lewd caricatures and photos of her father and ex-opposition leader, Anwar Ibrahim, who is now languishing in jail.
· In 2014 there was a public event where a number of Malays and dog owners gathered to allow Malays to touch dogs, primarily to help them overcome their fear and stigma of dogs, while everyone, including non-Muslims, learned about the proper practice of ‘samak’ or cleansing ritual for Muslims after touching dogs. However, the event garnered negative publicity and outrage from conservative Muslims, and photos of Malays seen at the event shared on social media (mostly women) were superimposed on pigs in an attempt to humiliate them.
· More recently, the proponents of the ‘Undirosak’ campaign, namely Hafidz Baharom and Maryam Lee, came under fire on social media, with many netizens slamming them both with insults and even threats of physical harm or even death. However, Maryam Lee bore the brunt of the online abuse, as not only did she face additional threats of sexual abuse, her face was also superimposed on lewd photos. Even if one disagrees with the ‘Undirosak’ campaign (this writer certainly does not support it), resorting to this extent of cyber abuse is abhorrent.
Wouldn’t all of the above classify as transmission of derogatory communications material to hurt another, and therefore against Section 233 (1) (a) of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998? Yet why was no action taken the culprits of the first two cases, and so far there has been no news of the police following up on the police report lodged by Maryam Lee against those who defiled her image and threatened her?
One can see the obvious difference. In all cases above, the authorities were simply not bothered, whereas in the case of Zunar and Fahmi Reza whose artworks featured PM Najib Razak in a negative light, immediate police action was taken and punishment meted out. Whereas in the case of Namewee, while the authorities claim that his latest ‘Like A Dog’ video was a threat to Malaysian harmony and an insult to Islam, one would scratch their head watching the video, wondering which part of it was a threat or insult to either? There was no reference to Islam, there was no mosque in the video, there was no insult to any of the races or communities of Malaysia. There was, however, a prominent backdrop of the Prime Minister’s office, and one line of the song (which describes the various dog sounds made in different countries) goes ‘Dogs in Malaysia bark “Mari mari wang wang”. While ‘wang’ in Chinese is the word for the barking sound of dogs, ‘wang’ in Malay means ‘money’. So the best that one can deduce from this line is he could mean there are some greedy ‘dogs’ in Malaysia who love money. Given the location of the video, one can make another deduction that these greedy dogs are based in that specific location. So why would Namewee’s latest video threaten the harmony of the nation or be an insult to Islam? Simply put, it is not. It is merely a threat and insult to the people based at that particular location of the video, who of course don’t like the insinuation that they are the same as these infamously ‘unclean’ animals. Personally I don’t like it either. Dogs are loyal, loving, and protective of the people who take care of them. Hence I find it insulting that these amazing animals be compared to greedy people in power who disrespect those who provide their paychecks through taxes.
What is achieved by stifling artistic dissent?
The objective of the authorities taking action against these artistes is clear. Criminalizing imagery or videos that insult politicians will make ordinary Malaysian think twice about making or sharing thing that put the ruling party in a bad light. They also aim to wear down these artistes with constant threats and punishments, so to discourage them from doing the same in future. What they seem to fail to realize however, is taking such excessive measure to keep these artistes under control is counterproductive and backfiring.
A lot of people, including myself, did not find out about Namewee’s video from friends sharing it, but because of news reports that the police were looking for him in connection with this video. Most news readers would have done what any curious person would do, which was immediately search for and watch the video to see what the hoopla was about. Same goes for anytime Zunar comes out in the news for some latest insulting cartoon…those who read the news will of course be curious and want to see the offending image. By lodging investigations against them and it coming out in the news, it gives these artistes pretty much exactly what they want: Free publicity! More people have and will be seeing the offending images or videos thanks to the constant attention given to them by the police and the press, which is counter-productive to the authorities’ intentions of trying to have less people view the offending material.
The coverage of these cases in the news are also giving Malaysia a negative image on the international front. Cartoonists Rights Network International, an organization based in the United States, has been closely monitoring and reporting Zunar’s case. They have also written an open letter to PM Najib, demanding that all sedition charges be dropped as they are a violation of rights to freedom of expression, as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as under provisions of the Malaysian Constitution itself. Given that this is a country where opposition leaders have been put in jail for ridiculous charges and little is being done to regulate foreign labour in this country where abuse is common, news of regular violations of human rights by international media seems to do little to deter our authorities. It is, however, another embarrassment to ordinary Malaysians.
Fahmi Reza’s case shows most clearly how the free publicity has benefitted him. After the ruling from the Ipoh sessions court, Fahmi started a crowd-funding campaign online selling various merchandise featuring his clown caricature of PM Najib in order to raise funds to pay for the RM30,000 fine. He managed to raise that amount and more in less than 18 hours from starting the campaign! Thanks to the court ruling and free publicity, Fahmi now has more than enough money to pay the ridiculous fine as well as to live off for a few months.
The fact that Fahmi raised so much money in such a short time goes to show another important thing: Malaysians are not happy with the constant attempts by the authorities to clamp down on Fahmi and other artistes. Malaysians do not find their artwork as attempts to cause disharmony to the country or any religion. Rather Malaysians are tired of being forced to tow the line when it comes to voicing dissent against the government on social media. Malaysians are tired of seeing police taking action on people committing non-crimes like tweeting, making music videos and drawing cartoons, while corruption and other more severe crimes are ignored. But for many who have limited financial resources, families or dependents, they cannot afford to take the risk of actively voicing out for fear of legal action being taken against them. Hence, these artistes who have no such qualms are their voices of dissent. The money poured in because Fahmi is like a hero to them, one of the brave few who dared to use their talents to openly highlights abuses of power in this country.
The authorities should take heed, they may be able to use the law to shut up the general voices of dissent, but the massive support for Fahmi shows dissent is there and the people will show it in other ways where possible, whether it means backing persecuted artistes, or at the ballot box. Our tourism Minister, Dato’ Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz has wizened up and advised fellow politicians to ‘suck it up’ and be less sensitive, else they have no business being in politics. Even the president of the United States, constantly undergoes constant mockery, including from American comedians on national television. In fact, a comedy series, ‘The President Show’ was created purely to parody and insult President Trump, yet as immature as many people believe Trump to be, he has even not tried to curb such public mockery. Doing so would of course be seen not only as extremely immature, but a blatant abuse of power. Even much more so if he were to use the excuse that mocking him is a threat to the national harmony of the US, and is an insult to his religion, i.e. Christianity. Yet this immature behavior is displayed by our authorities even so often.
If the authorities did not like being mocked then the best thing they can do for themselves is focus on their jobs and improving the livelihood of the rakyat. Stop diverting valuable police resources away from curbing actual crimes by making them clamp down on non-crimes of making cartoons and music videos, which has already shown to be counterproductive. Stop misusing the excuse of national harmony and insults to Islam as a cover for the fact that it’s your own egos that were bristled.
In effect, stop clowning around. Earn the respect of the people, only then will the mockery turn to respect.
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