S Thayaparan
Published: Jul 7, 2025 8:59 AM
Updated: 10:59 AM
“Section 298 blends well with Malaysia’s populace for preserving sensitivity of religion, which is essential.”
Published: Jul 7, 2025 8:59 AM
Updated: 10:59 AM
“Section 298 blends well with Malaysia’s populace for preserving sensitivity of religion, which is essential.”
- Judge K Muniandy
COMMENT | While the retirement of former chief justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat dominated the news cycle, an extremely important decision made by the judiciary passed unnoticed.
The Court of Appeal decided that all was kosher with the “hurt feelings law” and that the creators of the film “Mentega Terbang” had to make their case in criminal proceedings.
What is important to understand here is that the state is going to prosecute two filmmakers based on a vague law with no clear definitions and solely on the fact that “feelings were hurt”, a point made by lawyer N Surendran.
“What is wounding the feelings of one person is not wounding to another person. It is completely subjective as each person reacts differently.
“Looking at the Criminal Procedure Code, there is no definition of what wounding religious feelings consists of,” Surendran said.
Objective to control Muslims
What this means is that any kind of speech, when it comes to religious sensitivities, could be deemed as hurtful, but more importantly, the state can prosecute anyone they choose to with this law.
Religious sensitivity has been weaponised in this country, and while the discourse revolves around how it has been weaponised against the non-Malay community, its real purpose is to turn the Malay/Muslim community into a monolithic polity, which would be easier to control.
Take Perlis mufti Asri Zainul Abidin, for instance. When he insulted the Hindu community with his cow poem and faced no sanctions from the state, from reportage - “His poem had, among others, touched on ‘cow worshippers’ and the caste system and stated that there were limits to tolerance and patience.”
Basically, he was claiming that Hindus needed to be self-reflective when it came to their religion, and he, as a Muslim, was exercising his right to free speech by writing that poem.
He claimed this was because there were aspects of culture and religion that were not exempt from criticism, as tolerance and patience have their limits.
Of course, he would never impose such thinking on his religion, but the point remains that religions need to be open to debate, especially by adherents of the religion.
In this country, the dominant polity gets it worse. Why do you think this is?
Well, because speech which includes art that deviates, offends, and genuinely tackles social issues goes against the political and religious narratives of the state.
“Hurt feelings” and “cause confusion” are the tools that keep the majority polity in check.
It may seem like the targets are non-Malay/Muslims, but the objective is to ensure compliance when it comes to the narratives of the religious state.
Religious exploration taboo, but deception is fine
In this film, a young girl explores other religions in hopes of seeking answers to her questions.
It really does not matter what her questions are, only that to the religious far-right, their religion and those who have control over it, provide all the answers one will ever need.
Religious exploration is normal, especially during teenage years.
Now, someone like Firdaus Wong, however, would have non-Muslim teenagers lie to their parents.
Firdaus Wong
This preacher uploaded a video on how to enable minors to lie to their families, subvert religious rituals (prayers in toilets), empower teachers to transmit religious dogma to minors under their tutelage and make it very clear that religious morality trumps legal requirements.
Hence, for him, religious exploration and deception go hand in hand.
In a democracy, religious exploration is normal, but this does not apply to Muslims in this country because any kind of religious exploration is met with sanctions by the religious state.
This is why moderate Muslims always preface their objections to anything that comes to religion by claiming that they are not religious scholars. In no other religion do believers do this.
The exploration of the Islamic faith by the filmmakers of “Mentega Terbang” is verboten because such works of art would confuse the average Malay.
In other words, the only interpretation of religion should come from the state and all other intellectual thought is considered anathema.
Madani laying groundwork for theocracy
The banning of this film is in line with the Madani goal of controlling the religious narrative.
Do not take my word for it, take the word of Madani’s Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Religious Affairs) Na'im Mokhtar, who said: “I would also like to advise creatives to be more careful in producing and distributing content to the public so that the government’s goals for Malaysia Madani can be achieved.”
This preacher uploaded a video on how to enable minors to lie to their families, subvert religious rituals (prayers in toilets), empower teachers to transmit religious dogma to minors under their tutelage and make it very clear that religious morality trumps legal requirements.
Hence, for him, religious exploration and deception go hand in hand.
In a democracy, religious exploration is normal, but this does not apply to Muslims in this country because any kind of religious exploration is met with sanctions by the religious state.
This is why moderate Muslims always preface their objections to anything that comes to religion by claiming that they are not religious scholars. In no other religion do believers do this.
The exploration of the Islamic faith by the filmmakers of “Mentega Terbang” is verboten because such works of art would confuse the average Malay.
In other words, the only interpretation of religion should come from the state and all other intellectual thought is considered anathema.
Madani laying groundwork for theocracy
The banning of this film is in line with the Madani goal of controlling the religious narrative.
Do not take my word for it, take the word of Madani’s Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Religious Affairs) Na'im Mokhtar, who said: “I would also like to advise creatives to be more careful in producing and distributing content to the public so that the government’s goals for Malaysia Madani can be achieved.”
Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Religious Affairs) Na’im Mokhtar
The problem with Anwar Ibrahim’s Islamisation is that it gives cover to Perikatan Nasional when it decides to do the same thing.
If PN eventually comes to power, what it will rely on is the blueprint set out by Anwar and the support of the non-Malays who did not raise any objections to Anwar’s Islamic agenda.
This is already peddled to the base if people are actually paying attention and not merely getting their news from the echo chambers of the Pakatan Harapan support system.
We are talking about a film here, but keep in mind that Madani’s religious czar believes that the Malay polity could be so easily “confused” that he wanted “guidelines for Muslims attending non-Muslim” events.
If you care to remember, these were things that could offend the sensitivities of Muslims - speeches or songs in the form of propaganda and the distribution of religious pamphlets, performances or speeches that insult or mock Islamic religious beliefs, carrying out the event during Muslim prayer times, event location close to a surau, mosque, Muslim cemetery, or wakaf (endowment) land, and the premises containing non-Islamic religious symbols.
If PN eventually comes to power, what it will rely on is the blueprint set out by Anwar and the support of the non-Malays who did not raise any objections to Anwar’s Islamic agenda.
This is already peddled to the base if people are actually paying attention and not merely getting their news from the echo chambers of the Pakatan Harapan support system.
We are talking about a film here, but keep in mind that Madani’s religious czar believes that the Malay polity could be so easily “confused” that he wanted “guidelines for Muslims attending non-Muslim” events.
If you care to remember, these were things that could offend the sensitivities of Muslims - speeches or songs in the form of propaganda and the distribution of religious pamphlets, performances or speeches that insult or mock Islamic religious beliefs, carrying out the event during Muslim prayer times, event location close to a surau, mosque, Muslim cemetery, or wakaf (endowment) land, and the premises containing non-Islamic religious symbols.
All laws are created to discourage certain types of behaviour and thinking.
What were these rules or guidelines designed to discourage?
You only have to look at Muslim culture in Malaysia before the religious bureaucracy, enabled by political cretins, took over to see how diverse it was.
And you only have to look at the scholars, artists, and thinkers that the religious state goes after to understand why they want to stamp out any kind of plurality in the polity.
Imagine the diverse voices being snuffed out all over the world by theocracies or would-be theocracies.
Ultimately, these laws are designed to discourage questioning. This is the first principle of the theocratic state.
S THAYAPARAN is commander (Rtd) of the Royal Malaysian Navy. Fīat jūstitia ruat cælum - “Let justice be done though the heavens fall.”
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kt comments:
Beautifully explained, Commander has also identified the TRUE target of Section 298 of the Malaysian Penal Code, namely:
... to turn the Malay/Muslim community into a monolithic polity, which would be easier to control - remember, (religious-bent) laws are designed to discourage questioning. This is the first principle of the theocratic state,
and not so much that ...
... it has been weaponized against the non-Malay community.
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