On Jan 10 this year, Malaysiakini reported news on the issue of the royal addendum. It carried this caption, “Ministers hid Najib addendum, led to Umno’s crisis of trust - KJ”.
The contents of it, inter alia, reads “Former Umno minister Khairy Jamaluddin has brought attention to a purportedly deepening crisis of trust in his former party over the royal addendum linked to former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak.”
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Azalina Othman Said took exception to Khairy’s statements. Consequently, her political secretary - Suraya Yaacob - lodged a police report against him and Malaysiakini.
Police acted relatively quickly. Both Khairy and the news portal’s executive editor RK Anand were summoned for police investigation. Police recorded their statements under Section 112 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC).
Under the name of investigations, police have also seized a laptop from Malaysiakini. I have received many complaints that police failed to return the seized laptops or handphones, even when the investigations did not end with prosecutions or the investigations were officially classified as “NFA”.
A matter of public interest
Legally speaking, the police have a duty to investigate whenever a report is lodged by any party pursuant to Section 107 of the CPC.
Nonetheless, in my view, the whole issue of addendum, in essence, entails a political discourse on matters involving public interest.
There has been a whole raft of political debates on this very issue, even before Khairy joined the chorus. Being a politician, he jumped onto the bandwagon to express his opinions. And Malaysiakini - being a reputable media - was merely giving him space.
As far as political debates are concerned, the rules of the games are rather unusual and eccentric.
Under such circumstances, the level of tolerance should be exceptionally high. After all, in political debates, political actors occasionally deliver feeble or even false points in order to score points or to play to the gallery.
That is the sui generis (unique) nature of political discussion. And I believe both Khairy and Azalina are fully aware of this fact.
Assuming Khairy was wrong in his criticism of Azalina, she should have used a public forum to respond to such criticism. Asking her political secretary to lodge a police report was uncalled for.
A government and its ministers must be fully aware that they are elected by voters hence they must be subject to close scrutiny by the people who installed them into power in the first place.
Criticism integral to good governance
Being subject to unhindered and close scrutiny by electorates is an integral part of good governance. Any attempt to silence any criticism against the government of ministers on any matters involving public interest would definitely have chilling effects on the right to freedom of speech.
As rightly pointed out by the House of Lords in Derbyshire CC v Times Newspaper Ltd - “It is of the highest public importance that a democratically elected government body, or indeed any governmental body, should be open to uninhibited public criticism”.
Based on such a sound and logical principle, the government bodies in the United Kingdom - irrespective of central or local - do not have the right to maintain an action for damages for defamation.
Ergo, the threat of a civil action for defamation, let alone criminal defamation, must inevitably have an inhibiting effect on freedom of speech.
Yes, I am fully aware that our apex court decided not to follow the judgment of the aforesaid case on the ground that the government has a statutory right to sue under Section 3 of the Government Proceeding Act 1956 (GPA 1956).
However, the principles outlined in the case of Derbyshire CC v Times Newspaper Ltd reflect the true and real meaning of democracy. - Mkini
MOHAMED HANIPA MAIDIN is former deputy law minister.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.