Quiz: How Much do you Know About Arts Censorship in Malaysia?

Oops! It’s actually the book cover. This edition, published by William Heinemann Ltd. has been banned since 1992. According to several reports, it was banned because of the face on the cover, which might be construed as being a depiction of one of Islam’s prophets. Any depiction of the prophets is against Islamic teaching. Please refer to Warta No: P.U. (A) 315 for further information.

Actually, Shin Chan is the only animated character that has not been censored in Malaysia…yet! Conan The Barbarian was censored on the 27th July 1989 by the Home Minister, although no reason was given. The comic book Ultraman The Ultra Power was banned in 2014, with the Home Minister citing the content to be “detrimental to public order”, which might be related to the usage of the word Allah, the Arabic term for God, in its translation. Most recently, the highly-anticipated animation, Lightyear, which revolves around the origin of Buzz Lightyear, the fictional character of an astronaut from Disney and Pixar’s famous Toy Story franchise, was cut and censored as it contains queer characters.

Oops! It is indeed as absurd as it gets. Though rock culture was heavily scrutinised, which led to multiple cases of censorship in the ’80s in Malaysia, surprisingly rock music was never censored for its sometimes erotic lyrics. It was however deemed too Westernized and against Islamic culture at various times. It was also described by the then Minister of Culture, Najib Razak, as a form of ‘devil worshipping’. Infamously, in 1990, the Minister of Information, Tan Sri Mohammad Rahmat, banned male artists with long hair from appearing on national TV. Two years later, on 1st Nov 1992, the frontmen of two of the biggest rock bands at the time, Awie (of Wings) and Amy (of Search), infamously had their long hair cut on live TV by the Minister of Information, so that their bands would no longer be banned from appearing on the national broadcaster.

Nice try but that’s not the answer! Only Animal Farm and its Malay edition, Politik Kandang (2014) by renowned writer, George Orwell, is available for purchase in both English and Malay in Malaysia.  Unfortunately, the other three titles listed have all been either totally banned or experienced initial censorship due to the politics of translation and language policing in Malaysia. Darwin’s Origin of Species, in English, is available for sale at many bookstores in Malaysia. However, the Indonesian translation, Asal-usul Spesies, was listed as a banned book in 2006 under the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1982. The Malay translation of Allah, Liberty and Love: The Courage to Reconcile Faith and Freedom by Canadian author Irshad Manji was initially banned, but the ban was overturned in court, on grounds that it was an illogical ban as the English version was readily available to the public already. The Malay translation of Toward an Islamic Reformation: Civil Liberties, Human Rights, and International Law (1990), Menuju Reformasi Perundangan Islam (2006) by Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na’im was banned in 2017. In Malaysia, out of 1,695 banned books between 1971 and 2017, almost 40% were either in Malay or Bahasa Indonesia. The reasons given are diverse, ranging from the books being detrimental to public order or against the cultural and religious norms.

Almost! You can only use Wassatiyah. If you are a non-Muslim and are caught featuring the word Assalamualaikum, InsyaAllah or Allah, in your upcoming work, be extra careful as you might be fined a few thousand Ringgit or even face multiple years of imprisonment. This is a legal provisions in various Malaysian states, particularly under the ‘Control and Restriction of the Propagation of Non-Islamic Religions’, designed to prohibit non-Muslims from using certain phrases and expressions deemed to be Islamic.

Oops! That’s not the answer! Though all the titles listed have been banned, the reasons are varied – from promoting LGBTQ’s contents, being against religious norms, to promoting Communist materials. The right answer to the question is the book entitled Rebirth: Reformasi, Resistance and Hope in New Malaysia edited by Kean Wong, which was banned in July 2020. The reason behind the total banning of the book by the Home Minister, Hamzah Zainuddin can be attributed to its book cover. The image, based on the original painting entitled Tolerance! Tolerance!! Tolerance!!! by artist, Shia Yih Ying was first exhibited in 2014 without incident. However, after it was used as the cover of this book, it was accused of imitating the national coat-of-arms, which is apparently an offense under Section 3(1)(a) of the Emblems and Names (Prevention of Improper Use) Act.

Actually, all the reasons listed above can be attributed to the banning of the ‘semi-musical documentary’ in 2006, except for the harmless pomelo in the poster. The pomelo is a fruit commonly associated with the state of Perak, the hometown of the communist and anti-colonial figure, Chin Peng. There were multiple reasons cited by the Home Minister, as well as different political entities at the time, as to why the documentary could not be screened in Malaysia. One was that that it was banned in “the interest of the public order”. Apart from that, the release of The Last Communist close to the 60th anniversary of the the ruling party at that time, United Malays National Organization, was deemed insensitive. Interestingly, the documentary was also accused of “not show(ing) enough violence or portrayals of violent acts to reinforce the perception that communists are violent people”.

Nice try but that’s not the answer! Though having the most number of publications banned is far from being a competition one wants to win, if there were to be such a competition in Malaysia, Zunar, a renowned political cartoonist and activist, would absolutely be  in the lead. As of 2020, ten different politically charged titles by him have been banned: Sapuman: Man of Steal, Gedung Kartun, 1 Funny Malaysia, Isu Dalam Kartun (Vol 1, 2, 3), Conspiracy to Imprison Anwar, Perak Darul Kartun and Pirates of Carry-BN. Apart from that, his comic, Ros in Kangkongland and other titles are also currently being investigated under the Sedition Act as well as the Printing and Presses Act.

The other listed authors have also experienced the banning of their works. Renowned novelist and academic, Faisal Tehrani has had seven of his literary texts banned by the Home Minister, accused of spreading Shiite content, which is considered a deviant Islamic teaching in Malaysia. Meanwhile, though E.L James’ popular Fifty Shades of Grey book franchise was widely available in Malaysia when it was initially launched. However, in 2015, the movie adaptation was banned, and shortly after the books were  banned too, as both the books and film were deemed “a threat to morality” as suggested by the Home Minister. And last, but not least, Agnes Khoo’s  book documenting the oral history of the women guerrilla anti-Japanese and anti-colonial fighters in Malaya was also banned.

Sorry, but all the reasons listed above have been used by the government through its multiple agencies, ministers and authorities, to legitimise censorship in Malaysia. Books and artworks have been banned or censored under the pretext of being “prejudicial to public order”,  for example in the banning of five books with Islamic content in 2017, including Islam Without Extremes: A Muslim Case for Liberty by Turkish author Mustafa Akyol, and books by two other Malaysians, Ahmad Farouk Musa and Faisal Tehrani.

Maintaining good diplomatic ties has also been used to justify censorship in Malaysia. A case in point is the screening of the documentary No Fire Zone: The Killing Fields of Sri Lanka by Pusat KOMAS in Kuala Lumpur, in 2013. The Sri Lankan embassy in Malaysia pressured the local government to stop the screening, resulting in a raid by Malaysian police and Home Minister officers on the day of the screening. Although the documentary was allowed to be screened after some negotiations, a member of Pusat KOMAS, Lean Hendry, was charged for screening the documentary. The Sri Lankan government also pressured multiple other Asian countries to not screen the documentary.

Finally, the question of religious and cultural sensitivity is one of the most potent excuses utilized by the government to ban certain works and cultural activities. Targets have included traditional Nusantara performances such as Mak Yong and Main Puteri, which are practiced in the East coast states of Peninsular Malaysia. These forms were banned, for a period, for their allegedly pre-Islamic influences.

Actually, all of these have been used by the Malaysian government to either censor or ban cultural and arts productions in Malaysia. Though they may not be designed to govern or legislate censorship per se, some of the broad (and vague) interpretations give them the power to censor, ban or alter works. Apart from the legislation inherited from the British colonial period, such as Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984 and the Sedition Act 1948, we can also observe how certain religious enactments, for example the Section 16 Enactment of Syariah Offences Selangor 1995 and the Section 62 Enactment of Syariah Offences in Malacca State 1991, have been utilized to censor Internet content. Finally, it is also quite surprising to note that in 2019, the Malaysian Education Ministry summoned and investigated an international school for hosting a student performance which deemed critical to Malaysia’s palm oil industry.