Yoursay: In combatting hate speech, ensure MCMC is fair to all

YOURSAY | ‘Let there be no discrimination and no one group get away with a slap on the wrist.’

Umno senator raps DAP over MCMC's new hotline

Frankie: The Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) hotline for reporting race, religion and royalty abuse are targeted at you, Umno senator Khairul Azwan Harun, and the goons in your party.

For selfish reasons only known to you, you are creating fear and hatemongering to gain votes.

It’s all bull, but because you do not have the capability to steer Malaysia out of depression and are afraid of losing power, you resort to hiding behind race, religion and the royalty.

Oxymoronictendencies: Khairul Azwan is as two-faced as his masters in Umno. When BN ran the government, we didn’t hear a squeak from him.

Freedom of speech didn’t exist under BN and harassment of those that did speak out was widespread. Khairul Azwan has no basis to comment, let alone claim a misstep by Pakatan Harapan.

And why is he singling Communications and Multimedia Minister Gobind Singh Deo’s DAP out as the culprit and not Harapan?

Harapan is the government, not DAP. The strategy seems to be divide and divide.

Anonymous_cb8eed0c: Khairul Azwan, you have the audacity to say: “The decision is a sign that (the government deems) Malaysians are too weak to be able to listen to one another's opinions. That we need policing.”

What a stupid thing to say – that I must listen to your opinion, no matter what you say, if not I’m considered too weak. So that you can continue to insult and condemn another’s race and religion, like Muslim preacher Dr Zakir Naik, or PAS or Umno extremists, and the rakyat are supposed to tolerate that?

No Khairul Azwan, you are not getting away with that. No more, not without repercussions.

Good move, Gobind. Freedom of speech is not a passport to abuse another’s race or religion. Freedom of speech comes with responsibility.

So Khairul Azwan, remember you can be put behind bars if you ever tried to insult or condemn your fellow citizens on the basis of race or religion. The peace and harmony of the nation are more important than your freedom to utter anything you want.

Yes, Malaysians want the authorities to protect us from the extremists, bigots and racists who are a threat to the social fabric of our multiracial society.

Undecided: MCMC should just focus on the repeat offenders who use racial slurs to incite.

Influential leaders who are reported should be punished more severely as the impact of their incitement is much more dangerous.

There should be some control on hate speech, especially in a country like Malaysia where the racial minority is such a big one.

Anonymous21893764823920: While we understand that there is a need to fight hate speech, MCMC must carry out its investigation fairly.

Let there be no discrimination and no one group get away with a slap on the wrist.

MCMC hotline safeguards not a hate speech 'free-for-all' - Kit Siang

Innocent Bystander: I don’t think any right-minded Pakatan Harapan supporter would fear this new MCMC hotline to report hate speech on race, religion and royalty.

The first one to jump on the idea is an Umno leader. It seems that hate speech to instigate violence and hatred towards others are weapons for them to win voters.

Drngsc: There is no such thing as absolute freedom of speech, especially in a multiracial and multireligious country like Malaysia. Each must be responsible, so as not to create racial disharmony and racial tension.

One can freely comment, but please exercise caution when commenting on race, religion and royalty.

The Analyser: @Drngsc, tell that to the Western world. The only way freedom can survive is if it’s absolute.

Every advanced country is multicultural and multireligious. There is nothing unique about Malaysia, apart from the fact that Malaysians are so insecure and so selfish they want everything done their way.

Racial and religious disharmony lies in the mind of the recipient, not in the maker of the comment. And in Malaysia where everyone is so insecure about their race and religion, sensitivity is rampant. You are just another repressor pretending to have a liberal outlook.

That DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang should be advocating further controls and repression of the Internet in the face of what’s happening in Hong Kong is truly astounding. Has he absolutely no respect for the opinions of others? He is meant to be a representative of the people, not another despot.

The bottom line is that the Internet has allowed an explosion of knowledge, rights and communication. This has broadened people’s outlooks immensely and has allowed people to become very aware of what a load of repressive garbage some politicians spew.

Idocracy: Freedom can only be absolute if all humans are equally intelligent. The Western world is still struggling with racism and religious bigotry on a daily basis.

What comes out of a person is the output of his/her collective senses and experiences absorbed from surrounding events and knowledge.

The society you live in has profound influences on your attribute and behaviour. The world today, even the Western world is not ready; what more Malaysia.

@The Analyser, your views are principally correct but remain an academic view. The time has not come and timing is everything.

Liberalism and feminism are taking a hit in the West. Hellbent postmodern leftism is the thing of the past. Classic British liberals, who are really traditionalists, are gaining momentum because people who don’t subscribe to extreme liberalism are being persecuted.

Liberalists and feminists can be a new type of enemy that stifle freedom of expression.

Freedom stretches to both ends. Right or wrong, that’s where discourse comes in. More often than not, choices rule over principles and morality. If you place the stepping stones too far apart, folks will see it more of a harm than help.

Newday: Going on the ongoing irrational hysterics surrounding the 3R issue, I dread to think of the range of social media stuff the MCMC is going to have to sift through to determine impact on 3R comments as so many are just way too sensitive and emotional to figure out what is rational versus irrational and hate discussion.

How will the MCMC set the criteria? Who becomes the judge from MCMC? The overwhelming majority of MCMC employees are Muslim and Malay. The potential for bias in this current climate of irrationality is quite high. Who vets the vetters for their independence and clear thought?

As a little old liberal Muslim with a long and ethically driven professional career – I nominate myself! No messing about then and definitely no bias (maybe that last bit is wishful thinking). 

This online reporting without filters will be totally unmanageable.

Quigonbond: The Internet is just a medium. It is the actual concept of race relations that must be carefully deliberated, harmonised and a decision reached on how to preserve and protect it.

Surely the first step is for Harapan ministers (read: mainly Bersatu) to stop shooting themselves in the foot by giving ammunition to Umno and PAS – the latest by Bersatu leader Mohd Redzuan Yusof who makes dangerously generalised statements about compromise as if he suddenly has amnesia about the compromises that non-Malays have been making for decades, and he can't even spell out a single specific compromise that Malays have made.

What is he talking about? Is he talking about racial assimilation in Malaysia? That's not a compromise because that's not even in our constitution. Hare-brained ministers like that ought to be sacked.

Harapan ministers need to protect and preserve the spirit of the 1957 constitution by reversing some of the dangerous amendments that have been made since.

They have to start getting themselves sensitised, living and breathing national harmony, instead of people like Redzuan trying to score a political point for himself or for Bersatu to make Bersatu more relevant than it really is.

That is Harapan's problem. If Harapan is united, no bellicose instigation on race or religion by anyone, not the least PAS or Umno, is going to change our focus from one of identity politics to progressive development.

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