The 3Rs are an instrument of tyranny for Malaysia
Weaponised to destroy critics
Murray Hunter
Anwar’s regime slipped in the 3Rs (race, religion, and royalty) as taboo subjects for society to discuss, directly after the Kedah State Chief Minister Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor was charged with sedition for alleged comments he made about the Selangor Sultan during the series of state elections last August.
The 3Rs were taboo subjects for discussion in Malaysia, after the race riots in May 13, 1969, remaining in force until the end of Mahathir Mohamed’s first tenure as prime minister in 2003. To see them reintroduced during Anwar Ibrahim’s tenure as prime minister both surprised and disappointed many of his traditional support base. The 3Rs were deemed necessary by the government at the time to combat “racist remarks” attributed to opposition politicians.
The 3Rs is not a crime on any statute book. Existing crimes in the criminal code are used for prosecution. However, the Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM), the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), and the Islamic Development Department of Malaysia (JAKIM) are construing critical comments of the government, Islam, and royalty as a crime. These are now officially called 3R investigations. People are labelled guilty by accusation in Malaysia today by the above authorities.
The weaponisation of the 3Rs
The vagueness and lack of any definitions of what the scope and range of 3R discussion really means, has made this a perfect weapon against critics of Anwar’s regime, and those who uncover “Madani corruption”. Corruption ongoing within the present Anwar regime is being deflected by Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) investigations into corruption and cronyism that took place in the 1980s and 1990s.
Sedition and the MCMC Act are now the laws that are regularly utilized to silence, jail, and humiliate critics of the current government.
The ad hoc application of the 3Rs is also being used as a weapon to sow community discord. According to many commentators, inter-community relations are now at its lowest ebb in decades. The Anwar regime is using the 3Rs to play towards the Malay heartlands that the so-called unity government is protecting race, Islam, and royalty.
The antagonism caused over the ‘Allah’ KK Super Mart issue has led to three episodes of blatant terrorism. Those who are perceived as disrespecting the #Rs are being terrorized. Only six months ago, Malaysians witnessed students parading around with mock firearms in classrooms, to a bomb planted under the cars of activist lawyer Siti Kassim, and the firebombing of stores. These are acts one would expect in Pakistan, or Southern Thailand. Now they are occurring in Malaysia, which is heightening tensions.
This type of violence is unprecedented since the May 13 incident, 50 years ago.
Today, Malaysians see the PDRM pursuing social media users and slapping them speedily into jail, without legal representation. A 35 year old man was arrested, charged, tried, and sentenced to 6 months in jail, in just a few days. Two people have been jailed this month, for the crime of insulting Islam.
Meanwhile, the UMNO Youth leader Dr Muhammed Akmal Saleh, who incited action against KK Super Mart in regards to ‘five pairs of Allah socks’ is walking around a free man.
This shows a clear bias in law enforcement, where anyone the authorities wish to put in jail will be persecuted, without any fair justice.
Behind the PDRM is the MCMC, under the chair of TS Salim Fateh Din, which is illegally blocking hundreds of websites of those they deem critics of the government. The MCMC is working with social media platforms to pull down material the establishment doesn’t agree with. The MCMC, under Salim’s stewardship is also blocking critics of his own company MRCB, a clear conflict of interest and abuse of power. This is what happens when politically partisan people are put in charge of law enforcement agencies.
JAKIM is now in the business of destroying non-Muslim businesses, on the grounds these companies are denigrating the name ‘Allah’ or Islam. This is a very dangerous weapon against non-Muslim businesses.
More recently, Tamrin Ghafar, the son of a former UMNO deputy prime minister was called up by the PDRM to make a statement in an investigation of his political opinion/analysis. The MCMC tried to pull down the comments made by a mainstream political analyst Professor James Chin, of the University of Tasmania on X (Twitter).
The approach taken by the PDRM-MCMC-JAKIM is using the 3Rs as a tool of suppression of freedom of speech is a selective manner is tyranny. This is also destroying the racial harmony of the nation. It will only take one firebomb to kill a non-Malay, or more non-Muslim businesses being targeted and humiliated by JAKIM to create situations which may easily get out of control.
According to R Nadeswaran, the Inspector General of the Royal Malaysian Police Razarudin Husain claimed on April 3, the police didn’t take action on Akmal’s picture on Facebook holding a sword in a provocative manner, because no police report was made about the incident. R Nadeswaram claimed he did make such a report.
This points to the IGP of PDRM of just being another politician wearing a police uniform.
Malaysia is very quickly descending into a police state, driven by political cronies and the Islamic bureaucracy. Their selective persecution will put many more in prison, while political gangsters are roaming around free, playing with fire.
