Report: Freedom of thought in M'sia under 'serious assault'

Malaysia has again been given the worst possible ranking in an annual study of freedom of expression and freedom of religion around the world.

“This country is found to be declining, with human rights including freedom of thought and expression under serious assault,” said the Freedom of Thought Report 2015.

It rated Malaysia as having ‘grave violations’ against the freedom of thought, which is the worst of five possible rankings.

Malaysia had received the same ranking since 2013, when the five-tier ranking system was first adopted for the report.

The report was published on Dec 10 by the International Humanist and Ethical Union in conjunction with Human Rights Day.

Among others, the report highlighted that apostasy is punishable by death in some states, and Malays cannot identify themselves as non-religious.

In addition, it is illegal to advocate for separation between religion and the state, and government agencies openly marginalise, harass, or incite hatred or violence against the non-religious.

Each of these are considered ‘boundary conditions’ in the study, any of which would warrant a country being given the ‘grave violations’ rating.

There are 30 countries this year with this rating, including China, North Korea, Indonesia, Brunei, Nigeria, and Swaziland.

Other possible ratings - from worse to better - are: Severe discrimination; systemic discrimination; mostly satisfactory, and; free and equal.

Singapore, Cambodia, and Philippines fared best amongst Asean countries, but only for a mediocre rating of having ‘systemic discrimination’.

Other Asean countries received the ‘severe discrimination’ rating, namely Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam.

There are eight countries with the ‘free and equal’ rating, such as Taiwan, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

Harassed by authorities

In Malaysia’s case, the report also highlighted the sedition charges against lawyer Eric Paulsen (photo) as an example of violations against the freedom of thought and expression in the country.

This was in relation to a post he published through the microblogging service Twitter, in January, where he said the Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim) is promoting extremism in Friday sermons and the government needs to tackle that if it is serious about tackling extremism.

“Eric Paulsen, personally non-religious and a recurring, legitimate critic of the government - especially in connection with the imposition of Islamist extremism - has been repeatedly harassed by the authorities,” the report said.

The report also notes that Paulsen had been arrested and detained, but not yet charged, over another tweet highlighting problems of implementing hudud. -Mkini