The Anti Fake news law is currently being debated and it is expected to be passed anytime soon just in time for the coming 14th General Election. This bill is expected to be used extensively to punish anyone that spreads news that is defined as ‘fake’ by Barisan Nasional government in another method to silence their detractors.
Malaysia’s most unpopular Prime Minister Najib Razak seems to be following the playbook of his close friend US President Donald Trump (who is also anti Muslim) by narrating any news that doesn’t favour the BN government as ‘fake news’. The only difference between these two leaders is that PM Najib is taking it a step further by regulating all news through legislation. Hence destruction of the already limited media freedom.
Once this bill is passed, the entire cabinet will be guilty of fake news where the ministers are usually known to be contradicting each other on the media especially when it comes to government scandals such as FELDA, Tabung Haji and 1MDB.
Nevertheless, it is obvious that this bill will be used to protect BN and punish its detractors. This form of legislation will also lead to total control and media filtering such as being implemented in China by the Communist Party.
This bill shouldn’t even been suggested in the first place. As much as we abhor fake or irresponsible messages being spread via various channels, the ‘government knows best’ mentality has to stop! In fact this was also announced by PM Najib prior to 13th General Election. Now he plans to make Malaysia as one of the most authoritarian countries in the world.
The government should instead encourage improvement on education by improving Intelligence Quotient (IQ), Emotional Quotient (EQ) and civic education. This way fake and irresponsible news can be countered with factual news.
Since PM Najib is ‘very confident’ with the coming election based on his bragging on the ‘success’ of his various programmes, why does he need to legislate laws such as this and also bulldoze through the redelination exercise? With the kind of confidence being shown by BN, this election should be a walk in the park for them.
DAPSY rejects irresponsible legislation as such! We don’t need ‘Big Brother’ to watch over us. We need responsible leadership.