Take freedom of speech seriously

To protect or not to protect: Even in the controversial Icerd protest, should the law be used to crack down on people’s free speech?

IN July 2018, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department for Religious Affairs Dr Mujahid Yusof Rawa announced in Parliament that the government was planning to table the Religious and Racial Hatred Bill to “deal with incidences when Islam is insulted but also when non-Muslim faiths are insulted to ensure that our multi-religious and multi-racial society is protected from being insulted and belittled.”

The genesis of the Bill stems from the National Unity Consultative Council (NUCC), which was established by former Prime Minister Najib Razak in 2013. In 2015, the NUCC presented its report to Najib but nothing more was heard about it until now, after the Pakatan Harapan government won the 14th General Election.