PKR's Petaling Jaya MP Lee Chean Chung is still dissatisfied with the Home Ministry's enforcers’ heavy-handed manner in taking two books from Toko Buku Rakyat despite Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail’s explanation of the seizure.
Saifuddin yesterday claimed it was not accurate to describe the book seizure in Kuala Lumpur last week as a “raid” on the bookstore at Wisma Central owned by author Benz Ali.
"I think the Home Ministry can ask the publishers to deliver the books or buy them from the market instead of conducting this seizure. If they find offensive elements, then they can blacklist them.
"Yes, it involves just two books. But it is also a form of documented knowledge, and the Malaysia Madani spirit requires us to be humble before knowledge and intellectualism,” Lee (above) told Malaysiakini.
"I would urge the Home Ministry to review and improve standard operating procedures (SOPs) so that they are in line with the spirit of Madani," he added.
Saifuddin had downplayed the incident saying that only two books were taken.
“A raid and seizure gave a connotation that the entire shop was taken. The ‘real’ story is two books were taken, and that, too, based on public complaints,” he told a press conference in Putrajaya yesterday.
The minister insisted that Home Ministry officials are empowered under the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984 (PPPA) to act upon public complaints and that both books will be returned to Benz if found to not contain elements that could trigger public unrest.
“Ask him (Benz) to send us the bill,” Saifuddin quipped when informed that Benz said Home Ministry officials should have bought both books from him instead for their inspection.
Last Friday, Benz said four officials showed up at the shop to conduct a raid and seized two titles: ‘Marx the Revolutionary Educator’ (Marx Sang Pendidik Revolusioner) by Robin Smalls and Benz’s book ‘Masturbation Poetry Collection’ (Koleksi Puisi Masturbasi).
The author had argued that both titles sold were not listed on the government's banned book list, and so should not be seized.
In the aftermath of the seizure, Lee spoke out against it, calling it “excessive enforcement” and urged the ministry to conduct an internal investigation into the matter.
PPPA ‘oppression’
PKR Youth vice-president Tyra Hanim Razali also previously hit out at the seizure.
On Aug 21, she called it an act of intimidation and questioned if it was double standards considering that works such as Adolf Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’ are available without restriction.
When contacted today, Tyra said such intimidation should cease in this new political space and according to Section 16 of the PPPA, the enforcers required a search warrant.
"There is no explanation why the Home Ministry decided not to apply for one.
"They should not resort to rhetorical arguments. It is a raid because it is not a scheduled visit carried out for conducting a search.
"According to the shop owner, there was no warrant shown, simply a ‘fishing expedition’ (surveillance) by non-uniformed officers initially, before the uniformed officers came to seize the books," she told Malaysiakini.
Tyra reminded that in the past, PKR was often oppressed under the PPPA.
"If we are required to deal with the PPPA before eventually abolishing it, the least we could do is to exercise caution in executing the power to not intimidate and oppress the alternative voices we were once," she said. - Mkini
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