In a few days this post may be illegal.

December 3, 2015 6:29 AM

The Malaysian Government is rushing through an anti-terrorism bill that has already been likened to a draconian dictatorship - providing the Prime Minister and a group of other Ministers with special powers such as seizing property, curfews with hefty fines, demolishing unoccupied buildings, arresting anyone threatening "national security", and various other emergency measures enacted without safeguards. Many groups have denounced the bill and called for its repeal, including the main Opposition coalition, the Malaysian Bar and other lawmakers, and human rights organizations.
posted by divabat (30 comments total)

As a student worker, back in the 90s, I worked with a student from Malaysia in the university library. I remember her telling me how shocked she was when she first came to the States and saw a skit mocking president Clinton on Saturday Night Live. My young, ignorant self asked why. She said mocking gov't leaders just isn't done in Malaysia. Things would go poorly for you.

I guess my point is Malaysia has never been a bastion of freedom.
posted by LoveHam at 6:50 AM on December 3, 2015 [3 favorites]

Dark times everywhere unfortunately.

In the UK, hearing our own Democratically elected Prime Minister calling the people who opposed dropping bombs terrorist sympathisers... well it sent shivers down my spine. He even suggested the leader of the Opposition was a threat to National security.

I do think there's a frightful element of truth when the Malaysians say they take inspiration from the UK. Sure, it's aimed at "foreigners" at the minute, but it's not a huge leap to start just targeting Muslims, or "Radical" Lefties.
posted by twistedonion at 6:52 AM on December 3, 2015 [1 favorite]

Wow, what a naked grab for power. Just two days of discussion means this bill has been waiting in the wings for a while. And just after the eyes of the world and the international media have left Malaysia after the East Asia Summit.

UMNO must be able to read the writing on the wall, especially with Pakatan Rakyat winning the popular vote last time. I cannot imagine that they are very enthused about losing the next election after the irregularities in the last one.
posted by mdonley at 7:06 AM on December 3, 2015

Why is the parliament seemingly allowing this? They're giving away their own power. Is there a split?
posted by zennie at 7:11 AM on December 3, 2015

LoveHam: yeah, having grown up as a multiple minority in this country, when I read the bill I was thinking "and this is different from the status quo how exactly?".

twistedonion: make no mistake, this will be targeting local dissidents first and foremost, like it always has. And the "foreigners" would mostly be poor not-always-legal immigrants from particular countries that get scapegoated to all hell.

hal_c_on: I remember there being some chatter yonks ago about how our ISA laws inspired your Patriot Act, with the whole "arrest anyone without trial for national security" deal. So if anything y'all are just becoming more like us.

mdonley: I have nooooooooo confidence in Pakatan. Their 2013 campaign was largely rooted in "hey! let's force anyone who looks Bangla to sing the national anthem because there's no way they're actual citizens, they are paid off by the ruling party to vote for them!". As someone of Bangladeshi heritage who was born and bred in Malaysia but didn't get citizenship till 2011 because of gov bullshit, and for whom that election would have been the first (except their laws around overseas votes are ARCANE), I was thoroughly unimpressed and dismayed. The Ruling Party aren't our friends either you fools.
posted by divabat at 7:11 AM on December 3, 2015 [11 favorites]

zennie: the Parliament is 99.99% the Ruling Party, there aren't really a lot of people that will be losing power overall about this.
posted by divabat at 7:11 AM on December 3, 2015

Wow, that's just sad and wrong. Just when you thought our man Najib couldn't have gotten more brazen than the nonsense about the One Malaysia fund.
posted by the cydonian at 7:13 AM on December 3, 2015

Well crap.
posted by zennie at 7:14 AM on December 3, 2015 [1 favorite]

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 30 — Malays could be next in line after the Chinese to leave the country, in a bid to escape the growing religious fundamentalism and authoritarianism that leaves little room for free thought and dissent, according to activists and observers.

While Malaysia bills itself as a moderate Muslim nation, recent developments have demonstrated an increasingly conservative and hard-line approach to Islam here that is intolerant of cultures and practices not sanctioned by religious groups and authorities.

Malaysians for Malaysia convener Azrul Mohd Khalib said the Friday sermons prepared by the religious authorities that paint non-Muslims as enemies of Islam, as well as the use of labels such as liberalism, pluralism and humanism to vilify fellow believers, have dismayed and scared Muslims.
- See more at: http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/growing-islamic-fundamentalism-seen-pushing-malays-to-quit-country#sthash.aSfJAlnm.dpuf
posted by Postroad at 7:52 AM on December 3, 2015

Next in line? Please, Malays are actually already the #1 group of Malaysians who have been leaving* (most probably because they would have the easiest systematic route - they get the priority for various govt scholarships overseas, and they never come back.)

What it means is just that people like me are just being left behind, trying to fight the good fight.

*this particular data has actually been quite scrubbed and thoroughly buried, so I can't have any links to show. I just remembered it made the local broadsheet back in 2007, and it made an impression because it was so counter to established popular opinion (which can get dominated, in English, by urban non-Malay voices)
posted by cendawanita at 8:11 AM on December 3, 2015 [2 favorites]

I'm sure they'll say it won't be used against anyone who's not a terrorist. But guess who some of the first people arrested were in France after the emergency security laws were applied there after the recent mass shootings?

Climate activists, of course.
posted by clawsoon at 8:42 AM on December 3, 2015 [5 favorites]

From a couple of weeks ago:

French state of emergency allows website blocking, device search powers
Hints it may make it illegal to merely visit sites connected with terrorism.

The new law would prevent any discussion of government surveillance, even in court.

An amendment that would've made it illegal to merely visit a site connected with terrorism was rejected. Currently, it is an offence if the visits are habitual and linked with preparations for concrete acts of terrorism. However, the French prime minister said that legislators will soon be discussing the matter again, suggesting that his government has plans to bring in a law along these lines.

Finally, La Quadrature du Net points out a worrying vagueness in a section of the new law dealing with powers to dissolve groups or associations that "take part in committing acts that seriously endanger the public order or whose activities facilitate or encourage committing such acts." For example, this could include "many associations promoting the use of encryption technologies, which are indeed used by criminals but also mainly by many innocent citizens."

posted by XMLicious at 9:14 AM on December 3, 2015 [2 favorites]

The Malaysian government in its most recent incarnation has decided to double down on the Islam card and it doesn't seem like a good time for those who enjoy secularism, liberalism, or democracy in society.

My own personal stake is unfortunate - I am waiting for news about renewal of our company's government contract for public school ESL teacher training, but given the current thrashing and lashing out it does not seem to me that this sort of thing is going to be a big priority for the new Minister of Education.

I am only slightly fucked, though - I can (somewhat) easily find work elsewhere and leave. My real fear is for the minorities here. If I were a local Indian or Chinese (or "other", divabat!) I would be working non-stop to get myself and my loved ones somewhere safer. It's just a shot away. When I saw those redshirt demonstartions on TV a few months back, and how the masked men strutted and threatened those who were dishonoring "their" Prime Minister, I thought to myself, "all it would take would be for those riot police to be called off, and it would be full on ethnic cleansing"... I wish I was just being a pessimist, but it seems this new century we are constantly amazed that yes, the absolutely worst is indeed coming true. You think "oh come on, this is a developed country, it couldn't happen here"... Syria was pretty together five years ago, and women in miniskirts were going to universities and hanging out in bars in Kabul in the 1970s. There is plenty of precedent for shit to suddenly go downhill when the ruling elites decide to embrace sectarianism and hate.

I have worked closely with Malaysians and most of them are kind, friendly and open people. It is a shame that they have been saddled with the leadership we now see here.
posted by Meatbomb at 10:24 AM on December 3, 2015 [1 favorite]

The bill passed.
posted by divabat at 6:10 PM on December 3, 2015

I'm so sorry.

Next news item: All of Malaysia has been declared as a security area. After all, all of Malaysia is equally precious and deserving of protection.

Next next news item: Everything is very good. Everything. There is no more news.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 11:04 PM on December 3, 2015

dorothyisunderwood: That has pretty much been status quo since Malaysia's inception (particularly after 13 May race riots). I've heard that they never called off the state of emergency they enacted then, but I'm having trouble finding proof for it. As for the media - a friend of mine works at one of the large dailies and he tells me about how the Home Minister will yell at his boss if they don't publish the front page the way they want it, which gives the paper kind of a dystopic feel.
posted by divabat at 11:27 PM on December 3, 2015

And to add on to that, it was really eye opening to have cable with Singapore Channel 5 - they were of course very interested in their neighbor/sibling country right across the border, and the contrast in the reporting of news about what is going on here in Malaysia was extreme. It didn't seem "partisan" except in the sense that Singapore newscasters have a strong pro-reality spin on things. After a few years here I really laugh at the "Malaysia Truly Asia" tourism campaign that was (is) running for quite a while... look at all the happy minorities living in harmony! Of course we will mostly show you Chinese and Indian and mixed-race people because if you saw that all the local Malay women are compelled to wear tudong it would queer the pitch for Westerners.
posted by Meatbomb at 1:49 AM on December 4, 2015

I've just realized it... the image that Malaysia projects abroad is that they are pretending they are like Singapore. (that is the province they kicked out of the union because Lee Kwan Yew wouldn't accept affirmative action for the majority ethnic group and special national #1 status for the religion)
posted by Meatbomb at 2:02 AM on December 4, 2015

Meatbomb: Singapore is far from being a racial utopia themselves. Hell, just replace "Malay" with "Chinese" and you'll see that the dynamics, from political processes to what the media reports, is pretty similar.
posted by divabat at 2:20 AM on December 4, 2015 [2 favorites]

Singapore is a racial utopia? It's very very carefully controlled and papered over and did I mention, controlled? Race and racism is openly grappled with and discussed, but they're pretty upfront about it being a major issue that has very little Sesame Street niceness, and is way more about quotas and government policies and simmering tensions. And there's some weird religious tensions rising here too.

Being Malay-Malaysian in Singapore is quite different from being Malay-Singaporean. And the Malaysian security laws are - well, you guys had theoretically a freer press than Singapore, so I guess that's gone completely now.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 3:55 AM on December 4, 2015 [1 favorite]

Geez, if you Singaporeans thought we had the free-r press then I really feel sorry for you guys.
posted by divabat at 4:15 AM on December 4, 2015

I've heard that they never called off the state of emergency they enacted then

yes, that was true. There were a set of ordinances that had been put into place at varying times since the 1960s that were never lifted, including the one for May 13, (hashtag crol) but they were all lifted in 2011, when Najib was in his moderate phase.

why did you think this NSC bill gathered much urgency? Those emergency ordinances were how it was legally possible to mobilise the security apparatus the way it did - not just against dissidents, but over the years about as much against the criminal underworld - one of which is where the southeast asian islamic terror cells can be located**. It's now clear it's been a depressing pattern of bait and switch. He lifts the (emergency-related) restrictions on public gathering, he introduces a public assembly act that doesn't actually guarantee the civic right to public assembly without a lot of police intervention*. He removes the Internal Security Act; he brings in the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act. And I'm not saying he wasn't insincere when he was being progressive, but he is no leader, and I mean that in a substantive sense - he is a man without a true genuine faction in his home party. Every rightward drift is an internal concession to his supposed power base.

I don't have time to unpack Meatbomb's assertions, but if Singaporeans and Malaysians can utterly sideeye them together, that should tell you something.


*that said, the interesting thing is that if we use this act as a barometer, the fact that since then the police has accommodated public assemblies means that we have removed factual check-and-balance and due process, but are depending a lot on the police at their discretion and good grace. which is....

** the police, to understate things, were not happy that their custom of doing work has been drastically changed, and without actual efficient alternative methods rolled out and in place adequately. the spike in crime rate has been attributed to criminal warlords now no longer having to abide various restrictions on their personal movement. supposedly.
posted by cendawanita at 8:31 AM on December 4, 2015

(in any case, don't forget that security apparatus was how the Singaporean terror suspect Mas Selamat was actually caught by the Malaysian police in Johor, even though he escaped Singapore. While in prison.)
posted by cendawanita at 8:33 AM on December 4, 2015

What BN's New National Security Council Bill Actually Means And How It Affects Malaysians - 'The NSC Bill gives the PM the power to impose "emergency-like" conditions, WITHOUT the same safeguards as under Article 150 of the Federal Constitution, the Yang di-Pertuan Agong [the King of the Federation] must be satisfied that there is a need for a declaration of emergency. Whereas, the NSC Bill DOES NOT require the Agong's consent for an area to be declared a "security area."'
posted by cendawanita at 8:36 AM on December 4, 2015

belated re-reading of my main recent comment and agh i'd like to apologize and clarify. there was only one emergency ordinance that was in force, supported by a set of emergency proclamations including the one post-1969. That ordinance was called off in 2011.
posted by cendawanita at 3:52 PM on December 4, 2015

I guess I have learned that the best way to get news around here is to watch Singapore TV about Malaysia and vice versa. But I still think, at least in theory, Singapore has a better race relations legal framework.
posted by Meatbomb at 5:17 PM on December 4, 2015

then I'd suggest you first better familiarise yourself with both their respective realities and how that informs the kind of narrative they would like to push about themselves and each other.

as it is the race relations framework is practically parallel and mirror images of each other, complicated by dynamics more prevalent for each dominant race. Singapore, like a lot of settler colonies, uses meritocracy as a state principle to disguise embedded chinese privilege that comes from socioeconomic and political advantage, to the detriment of the natives and other minorities. Their framing of where each race occupies in their society isn't so much as progressive but continuing the boundaries established under colonial policy. Malaysia, like South Africa, practices positive affirmative action for the natives and like SA, tried to correct the comparative imbalance of socioeconomic share versus population size, but in doing so induced resentment amongst the rest, both minorities and other natives that didn't see any substantial benefit, and minorities who had occupied most of the economic sphere as a consequence of colonial policy, and could now not see any further benefit to this bargain. not the least because the policy had a sunset clause (1990) that has since been ignored.

Regardless, both patronises their population. Both will not allow free speech because of 'sensitivities'. Each exists as the other's boogeyman. Singapore looks like a more attractive western liberal choice because certain planks of identity politics are allowed by the establishment, after they decide tht it would not impact their electoral share. But growing christianisation amongst the chinese middle classes and elites will see the same rubbish politics that's being practiced here.

now the problem specific to this post is about active dismantling of governance and that can maybe be explained by race politics but certainly not entirely.
posted by cendawanita at 7:20 PM on December 4, 2015 [3 favorites]

The Malaysian Senate is meeting on Monday. There is a petition calling for the members to reject the bill. There might be hope yet.
posted by divabat at 3:11 AM on December 5, 2015

More about the call for the Senate to block the bill (though it seems unlikely)
posted by divabat at 3:13 AM on December 5, 2015

Senate just passed the bill with no amendments.
posted by divabat at 8:55 AM on December 22, 2015