SHAH ALAM, Feb 2 ― The Home Minister enjoys full discretion to make orders to ban printed items that it deems prejudicial to public order and national security, such as the yellow Bersih 4 T-shirts, the High Court was told today.
Senior federal counsel Suzana Atan highlighted Section 7(1) of the Printing Presses Publications Act (PPPA), which she said gave the minister “absolute discretion” to make such orders.
“Discretionary power conferred by law to minister may be exercised by the minister,” the government lawyer said when arguing that the home minister had acted within his ministerial function and statutory powers in issuing the ban last year.
Suzana said Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi was of the view that the yellow shirts bearing the Bersih 4 rally logo and pamphlets on the event were “likely to be prejudicial to public order” when he ordered these items to be banned.
“We submit it does not necessarily refer to actual disturbance of public order but anything which according to the minister, subject to his satisfaction, has potential to be prejudicial to public order,” she said.
But in his response, polls reform group Bersih 2.0's lead counsel Edmund Bon disagreed that the discretion given to the minister should be “absolutely subjective”.
“If not, minister can say socks that are red are banned,” he said when giving an example of the effects of such powers.
Bon highlighted that the courts have said rally organiser Bersih 2.0 is a “legal organisation”.
He said the Bersih 4 rally was itself not banned and that the situation was peaceful even after the rally ended.
“There's no weapon there; it's only saying 'Bersih 4'. How can it be prejudicial?” he said, referring to the Bersih 4 T-shirts.
Suzana highlighted however that the ban also covers pamphlets asking the public to participate in the rally, insisting that “it is for the minister whether something is likely to be prejudicial to public order”.
Shah Alam High Court judge Datuk Mohd Yazid Mustafa has fixed February 19 for decision.
The lawsuit is by polls reform group Bersih 2.0's chairman Maria Chin Abdullah, treasurer Masjaliza Hamzah and national representative Fadiah Nadwa Fikri against the home minister and the government of Malaysia.
Last August 27, the government gazetted the Home Ministry's order issued under the PPPA, which bans any item of clothing in its signature yellow bearing the “Bersih 4” name and any other printed material and pamphlet on the rally.
The nationwide ban was against the “printing, importation, production, reproduction, publishing, sale, issue, circulation, distribution or possession” of the yellow Bersih 4 T-shirts and the related printing materials due to their likely harm to public order, security, national interest and likely breach of laws.
The ban took effect on August 28, just before the two-day Bersih 4 rally from August 29 to August 30 that demanded for institutional reforms and for Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s resignation.
