PETALING JAYA: The Attorney General's Chambers is practising “selective enforcement” of the law in its decision not to prosecute Zamri Vinoth and Firdaus Wong for alleged seditious and defamatory remarks, says Tan Sri SA Vigneswaran.
The MIC president stated that the non-prosecution of both individuals has sparked public concern, following Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said confirmed that authorities found “insufficient evidence”.
He stated that this was despite nearly 900 police reports being lodged against Zamri over a Facebook post concerning the relocation of the Dewi Sri Pathrakaliamman Temple in March 2025.
Vigneswaran stressed that the 3R principle – pertaining to race, religion and royalty – “is not a legal tool to defend the sanctity of only one religion,” but a doctrine designed to maintain religious harmony and public order in a pluralistic nation.
“To enforce the 3R doctrine only when a particular race or religion is affected, while failing to act decisively when other races or faiths are insulted, reflects a dangerous and unacceptable double standard,” he said in a statement on Tuesday (July 22).
He added that such practices undermine the Federal Constitution’s Article 8 on equality before the law.
He questioned the AGC’s conclusion, noting that Zamri’s Facebook post had “led to mass outrage,” and was “publicly made, widely circulated, and interpreted as seditious, defamatory and inciting.”
“It is inconceivable that such conduct does not meet the legal threshold for criminal charges under the Penal Code or the Sedition Act 1948,” he said.
Vigneswaran argued that prosecutions in such cases are not merely punitive, but serve as deterrence and a reaffirmation that “no one is above the law” and that “freedom of religion includes protection from religious defamation.”
He called on the AGC to clarify its rationale, warning that public silence and inaction risk being perceived as bias and could inflame divisions in Malaysia’s multiracial society.
“Selective silence is not neutrality. It is complicity.
“If the 3R doctrine is to have any meaning in today’s Malaysia, it must be applied across all faiths - with fairness, firmness and integrity,” Vigneswaran added.
