DECEMBER 12 — Despite former sex blogger Alvin Tan fleeing to the US, the government can’t seem to let go of his taunts on Facebook against the government and recently, against the Selangor Sultan.
Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who oversees the Immigration Department, said Sunday that the passport of the 26-year-old Malaysian would be revoked.
The Immigration Department revoked Alvin’s passport as well as Ali Abd Jalil’s passport the very next day.
Tan had insulted the Selangor Sultan on Facebook after the monarch stripped Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim of his datukship. Youth activist Ali, 29, also called the Selangor and Johor rulers some pretty nasty names on Facebook.
Tan and Ali are currently applying for political asylum in the US and Sweden respectively. The two young men recently fled Malaysia after they were charged with sedition over Facebook posts insulting Islam and the royalty.
These men are not drug lords or jihadists in collusion with the Islamic State terror group. They’re merely Facebook users who are angry at the establishment. Their only crime is to be insulting.
Yet, Putrajaya acted against them just for saying things the government doesn’t like to hear, a crime that appears to be worse than terrorism, murder or rape.
Alvin Tan is the perfect representation of how freedom of speech should operate. He’s not some hipster activist that you’d see marching on the streets and brandishing a placard. He’s just a foul-mouthed guy who hates the government.
Free speech should extend to the lowest common denominator – the most offensive of insults that one would simply ignore amid the millions of pieces of content competing for attention on social media.
Tan is crass and uses plenty of obscenities in his pot-shots at Umno and the royalty. His mockery is not satirical. He doesn’t write erudite critical pieces against the government. The angry young man just curses a lot.
Yet, the government finds him threatening enough to revoke his passport. Utusan Malaysia even deems Tan a greater threat than the Islamic State terrorists who behead their enemies.
How can mere words be more dangerous than physical violence?
Freedom of speech must include the freedom to offend. It shouldn’t be illegal to insult someone. Otherwise, the concept of free speech is meaningless. Why would we need “freedom” to say things that make people happy?
The media needs freedom of expression because the very nature of journalism requires upsetting someone somewhere with the truth.
“Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed: everything else is public relations”, goes the quote often attributed to George Orwell.
Ordinary citizens also need the freedom to offend others when talking about socio-political issues or just about anything under the sun. Having a strong opinion in itself will offend someone with a completely different stand. It doesn’t matter if you’re a conservative or a liberal. In a democracy, diversity of thought should be celebrated, not punished.
The Barisan Nasional government keeps saying that Malaysia should not have absolute freedom of speech so as to protect national security and harmony. They give the (false) impression that the country will burn at the slightest insult on Facebook.
Insults are just words. Sure, mockery of the government, the royalty or race or religion may spark anger. But if it pushes people to commit assault (this has yet to happen, by the way), then surely the blame lies wholly on the perpetrators of violence, not the speakers. In the string of sedition cases this year, not a single case involves direct advocacy of violence.
The government should grow up and learn to handle insults.
Angry young men ranting on Facebook are not a threat to Malaysia. The real threats are terrorists, murderers, rapists, and other violent criminals. Not Facebook users.
* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
