KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 19 — Rights group Lawyers for Liberty (LFL) today condemned the Home Ministry's raid of book store Toko Buku Rakyat, calling it unlawful, unconstitutional and a national embarrassment.
The group accused the Anwar administration of being “trigger-happy” with the power it wields under the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984 (PPPA), labelling the officers' actions as overzealous and unnecessary.
“The ignorance and plain idiocy behind the seizure of his book is a national embarrassment. In short, there are no grounds whatsoever to justify seizing or banning these books under the restriction in Article 10(2)(a) of the Constitution,” said its director Zaid Malek.
Yesterday, the Home Ministry reportedly raided Toko Buku Rakyat, a bookstore owned by local author and educator Benz Ali.
Officials raided the store at Wisma Central here at 4pm yesterday, and confiscated two books: Marx Sang Pendidik Revolusioner, a Malay translation of Karl Marx: The Revolutionary as Educator by Robin Smalls, and Benz's own book Koleksi Puisi Masturbasi. None of them are on the banned books list.
Benz took to Facebook to condemn the actions of the officers as theft as they did not mean to return the books nor did they have the authority to confiscate them.
Zaid said today that the raid and seizure showed how the government is acting beyond the gambit of an already draconian law
“Seizing or destroying books is the hallmark of a police state, not the democracy we are supposed to be,” he said.
Zaid said this was the second such move by the government to pander to the conservative Muslims following the debacle of the raid and seizure of alleged LGBT-themed watches at Swatch stores in May, which also occurred before a ban was gazetted.
“We remind the government that its duty is to safeguard the community from actual harm or the threat of harm, not thoughts and ideas, which are protected by the Constitution. At all times the government must be guided by principles, and not populist sentiments in the hopes of garnering enough votes to stay in power.
“We thus urge the government to stop all enforcement action upon these two seized books and we further urge the government to halt all action under the PPPA and take immediate steps for its repeal. The repugnant PPPA should not continue to exist under a ‘reformist’ Prime Minister or government,” he added.
In January, Anwar told an interview that the LGBT, the concept of a secular state, and communist ideology will never be recognised during his administration.
