MCMC told to act swiftly against insults to religion, race, rulers

 

Annuar Musa says MCMC and the police have also strengthened their cooperation in fighting cybercrime to protect internet users in the country.

KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) has been instructed to review its standard operating procedures so that more proactive action can be taken against those who upload content that is insulting to religion, race and the rulers on social media.

Communications and multimedia minister Annuar Musa said he was made to understand that the matter was currently being referred by MCMC to the attorney-general’s chambers.

“This is to enable a clearer interpretation under the existing legislation where more decisive and swift action without compromise can be taken against those who insult Islam and other religions,” he said during the Minister’s Question Time session in the Dewan Rakyat today.

Annuar said apart from that, MCMC and the police have strengthened their cooperation in fighting cybercrime to protect internet users in the country.

“Through this, the process of strengthening interoperability with the Police Cyber Investigation and Response Centre has also been initiated to facilitate coordination in identifying content that could threaten public order,” he said.

Answering a supplementary question from Wan Hassan Mohd Ramli (PN-Dungun) who wanted to know whether the lack of manpower had caused the lack of monitoring of such content on social media, Annuar said both issues were not related.

“It is a matter of how social media is handled, for example, by service providers based abroad and those who have the rights to take down insulting posts.

“In the meantime, we are subject to certain legal processes because of the violation, mostly when it conflicts with any provision under the Penal Code or the Sedition Act. Then the investigation process and other due processes need to be done, so these processes usually take a long time,” he said.

On a supplementary question from Dzulkefly Ahmad (PH-Kuala Selangor) who wanted to know whether the government was ready to seriously consider establishing the National Harmony Act, Annuar said the new law was not an answer to the issue of people’s harmony.

In the issue of harmony, he explained, continuous advocacy and efforts to encourage people to adopt attitudes and values appropriate to a country of religious diversity and customs are more important.

“This culture is firmly ingrained in the country, our next step is to continuously apply and strengthen the values of mutual respect for diversity and not to raise racial issues, touch on questions of the position of the rulers, religion and so on,” he said. - FMT