'New publication permits must consider security'

Any new publication permits that the government decides to grant must consider the country's security, says Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein.

“My consideration is security. If there is anything that affects security, by all means, we need to address it with a clear conscience and at the end of the day the public will have to decide,” he said during a press conference in Kuala Lumpur this morning.

Hishammuddin (left) was responding to a question on whether the government will be more generous in giving out new publication permits in light of the proposed reforms to the Printing Presses and Publications Act (PPPA).

Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak had last Thursday, in a televised address to the nation, announced a slew of reforms including replacing the annual publication permit renewals with a one-off application, but the Home Ministry still reserved the right to revoke them at any time.

Asked if Suara Keadilan, PKR's party organ, will have its publication reinstated after it was suspended last year for running foul of the PPPA, Hisham was noncomittal.

“If you're talking about the opposition, whatever we do is never going to be enough. Political considerations will require the goal post to be moved every time we get close to it. I don't think that would be the benchmark, my benchmark is the people.”

'Too early to judge PPPA'

On the fact that publications still faced the risk of having their permit revoked at the Home Ministry's discretion, Hisham said it was too early to judge the reforms on PPPA.

“It is still too early for me to detail, it involves three ministries, we got (Information, Communications and Culture Minister) Rais Yatim, (de facto Law Minister) Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz and myself... It will depend on what comes out, it is not whether I feel it is significant or not, it is the rakyat that is important.”

The current PPPA requires an annual permit for any printed periodicals which can be revoked at any time, a criteria that allows the government to ensure its applicants toe the line.

On an unrelated matter, Hisham described Kota Shah Alam state assemblyperson M Monoharan's suggestion to change the national flag as a “provocation”, adding that the new security laws will have limits.

“Najib had courageously understood this new political landscape and we will draft and use the new acts so that there will be rights and limits for politicking (but) not to the extend that it touches on patriotism, racial unity and respect among religions, pawned for political power and sympathy,” he said.

He added that in light of the recent reforms announced by the prime minister, including the abolition of the Internal Security Act which allows for detention without trial, Umno leaders have gone to the ground to explain the situation to their members.

“The abolition of the ISA is closely related to new acts that are more specific... When we give such an explanation, for example, in Negri Sembilan recently, only then do people understand, we are not abolishing it blindly,” he said.