Should Malaysia consider lese majeste?
Published on: Thursday, February 14, 2019
KUALA LUMPUR: The act of insulting and mocking the monarchy through social media has become increasingly common nowadays that some have suggested that Malaysia implement the lese majeste law as practiced in Thailand.
Lese majeste – from the Latin laesa majestas – literally means ‘injured majesty’.
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In Thailand, the act of violating majesty is a crime that if found guilty, carries a prison term of three to 15 years.
The law, despite different approaches and punishments, is practiced in several countries around the world with the intention to protect and preserve the dignity of the monarchy.
Lese majeste, first introduced in Thailand in 1908, states anyone who “defames, insults or threatens the king, the queen, the heir-apparent or the regent” will be punished with up to 15 years in prison. The law applies not only to citizens of Thailand but foreigners in the country as well.
In December of 2011, Thai-born American citizen Joe Gordon was charged with lese majeste after posting a link to the translation of a banned biography about the Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej.
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The 55-year-old was sentenced to a jail term of two and half years but was granted a royal pardon in July 2012.
Teenagers were also not exempted from the strict law. A 14-year-old boy and eight others were charged with royal defamation in August of 2017.
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They were accused of burning the royal portraits of King Maha Vajiralongkorn and his late father, King Bhumibol Adulyadej at several locations in the north-eastern province of Khon Kaen in May 2017.
In August of 2017, a Thai man was sentenced 20 years in prison for distributing six video clips deemed insulting to the country’s monarchy.
Cambodia decided to follow Thailand’s lead by introducing the lese majeste law in February of last year.
Those found guilty under the law will face a jail term of one to five years and a fine of 2 million riels (RM2,600) to 10 million riels (RM10,300).
The first person arrested under the law was a 50-year-old teacher who allegedly insulted the monarchy in a comment posted on Facebook in May 2018.
The comments were allegedly critical of King Norodom Sihamoni, his father, late King Norodom Sihanouk and his half-brother Prince Norodom Ranariddh over their alleged role in the dissolution of the main opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party.
In January 2019, a man was sentenced to three years in jail for posting to Facebook a statement insulting the King of Cambodia. There are no laws specifically dealing with royal defamation like lese majeste in Malaysia.
However, anyone found issuing a statement insulting the monarchy would be investigated and tried under the Sedition Act of 1948 and the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998.
law expert from the International Islamic University of Malaysia Prof Dr Nik Ahmad Kamal Nik Mahmod said that in Malaysia, the Sedition Act provided for a prison term of five years and a fine of RM10,000 for the crime of insulting the monarchy. Many of the cases tried under the act were only heard at the Magistrate Court, he observed.
“This shows that they were treated as regular cases with penalty and fine,” he said, adding that such cases were not given heavy sentences like lengthier jail terms.
The Sedition Act is generally meant to criminalise speech with “seditious tendency”, including that which would “bring into hatred or contempt or to excite disaffection against” the government or engender “feelings of ill-will and hostility between different races” and the questioning of certain portions of the Constitution, particularly those to do with citizenship, bumiputera rights and the sovereignty of the Malay rulers.
Section 3 (1) of the act defines sedition as bringing hatred, contempt, or inciting dissatisfaction against theYang di-Pertuan Agong and among Malaysians and promoting tensions and hostility between the races or classes of Malaysians.
Earlier this month, a trader was arrested in Kuantan for allegedly insulting Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah on Facebook. The 45-year-old man is being investigated under the Sedition Act of 1948.
Aside from that, three social media account owners have also been arrested under the same act after post comments insulting Sultan Muhammad V in relation to his decision to step down from the position of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong.
In March of 2018, a housewife was sentenced to eight months in jail by the Sessions Court in Kota Bharu, Kelantan, for mocking Sultan Muhammad V.
Nik Ahmad Kamal said the Sedition Act 1948 did not clarify in specific terms the statements or acts that could be interpreted as royal defamation.
He believed that the government should amend the act to include an explanation on actions that could be construed as insulting the ruler and monarchy.
“This will also facilitate the police and public prosecutor when conduction investigations on such acts,” he said.
He opined that the rising number of offences against the monarchy over the past two decades showed that the act was no longer sufficient to address the problem.
It would better to amend the act than drafting a new law to protect the sanctity of the institution of monarchy.
“I do not see the need of implementing a lese majeste law such as that in Thailand as our Ruler is protecting by the Constitution and there are also already laws to regulate the authority of the rulers,” he said.
Prof Datuk Dr Ramlah Adam explained that the Sedition Act practiced in Malaysia was in line with Article 181 of the Constitution which guaranteed the sovereignty, prerogative, powers and authority of the rulers. The historian said the issue was not of ineffective laws but the lack of enforcement and implementation has emboldened offenders.
“The monarchy is described as a tradition that was part of the British rule and retained to this day through a Constitutional Monarchy,” she said.
To curb royal defamation, Ramlah proposed more emphasis to be placed on learning about nationhood, particularly in schools.
“We must make the Rukun Negara (national principles) as a subject in school and instil its philosophies in our children,” she said.
She added that special emphasis should be placed on Loyalty to the King and Country, the second principle of the Rukun Negara.
So what of the human rights to free speech? Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) law lecturer Dr Salawati Mat Basir said that there were limits to such rights and it should not be used as a ticket to freely criticise the monarchy.
She agreed that the country had been lax in enforcing many laws. As such, the government needed to prove that the Sedition Act was enough to address cases of insulting the monarchy.
“Offenders seem to be given only light sentences and they would ask for pardon using the excuse that they have repented. It seems to be something of a norm to them.
“The question of whether they have repented should not be made the focus but that they were emboldened enough to commit the offence in the first place,” she said. She did not dismiss the need for a law like lese majeste.
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