“Isn’t it important for the sake of artistic expression that parody and satire as a form of protest continues to be practised and defended?“
Fahmi’s lawyer Yohendra Nadarajan toldThe Sydney Morning Herald andThe Age there was no merit to the police probe,which was triggered by a complaint made by pro-establishment government MP Ahmad Fadhli bin Shaari.
“The queen had tweeted this phrase ‘are you jealous?’ when somebody asked her on Twitter if she and her cooks had received vaccines,” he said.
“When you touch the monarchy it’s always a sensitive subject. But this is just taking the mickey out of the situation.
“There has been no complaint from the palace. The Queen is not aggrieved by this.”
The latest arrest of Fahmi,who was jailed in 2018 for depicting then Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak as a clown before his sentence was lifted,has raised more concerns about repression of free speech under the government of current leader Muhyiddin Yassin.
The country has been at a political impasse,with parliament suspended since a state of emergency was declared in January to deal with the pandemic. It can only be lifted by the king,Sultan Abdullah Ahmad Shah,but with key allies in Muhyiddin’s Perikatan Nasional coalition walking away from him,the Prime Minister has been accused of using the COVID-19 crisis to hold onto power.
Former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad delivered a petition to the King last week urging him to end the state of emergency,which runs until August 1,and describing the government as “a dictatorship”.
The suspension of parliament has done nothing to help Malaysia wrestle away the virus. The Muslim-majority nation has registered at least 2000 new cases a day for much of the past fortnight and like most countries in south-east Asia has had a painfully slow vaccine rollout,with less than 3 per cent of its population of 32 million people having received at least one dose.
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The government last month brought in new laws against “fake news”,which includes jail terms. Like in Thailand where dozens have been charged underlese-majesteroyal defamation legislation for mocking the monarchy,it has used emergency rule to revive Malaysia’s archaic sedition law.
“The previous government made a moratorium on the sedition act ...[they said] they will never use the sedition act,” Fahmi’s lawyer said.
“But that was before the Pakatan Harapan government[led by Mahathir] fell. So now the new government has been using this old outdated law,charging people under the sedition act.”
Phil Robertson,the deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia division,said “the patently absurd persecution of artist Fahmi Reza over a Spotify playlist shows that Malaysian government persecution of free expression is reaching all new lows”.
“The intolerance of PM Muhyiddin Yassin and his government is really off the charts,and this kind of violation of civil and political rights betrays an anti-democratic tendency that values power and control over respect for the people and democracy,” Robertson said.