Former federal court Judge Harmindar Singh has recently come out to state that he believes that the defamation law in Malaysia is excessive.
It gladdened me to read his views, because I also have long instinctively believed that the defamation law in Malaysia is excessive and out of control. To hear that someone of the stature of a former federal court judge also thinks the same, is thus confidence inspiring.
Now that I think about why am I so against defamation laws in Malaysia, which is capable of granting hundreds of thousands or millions of ringgits in damages to a person, merely for some intangible loss, like their feelings being hurt, I think I have finally been able to reason out my instinct, and explain why I think excessive defamation law is bad for the people and the country.
To cut a long story short, I think that excessive defamation laws are bad, because they allow bad people or losers to rise to strategic positions in the country.
You see, a good person is someone who can accept bad things being said about them.
They can, because when you are good, you know you are good, and don't need anybody else to tell you that you are good. When you are good, and somebody says you are bad, you won’t be very affected by it. It won’t really affect your thinking or your feelings or the way you look at yourself.
If you are good, you will also have the power to control your thoughts. On the most part, you can think whatever it is that you want to think. If somebody said some bad things about you, and there is some truth in what they said, you will be able to focus on the truth in what they say, and not focus on the harshness or meanness in their expressions. If it is not true, you can ignore it altogether.
What others say about you will not affect your feelings excessively either. A good person generally feels good being themselves, not because other people admire or praise them, but simply because their goodness allows them to feel good about themselves. It is not because another person believes that they are good that they feel good about being themselves – they feel good simply because their good intentions and the actions that come out from their good intentions allow them to feel good about themselves.
If you are a good person, you won't even need people to say that you are a good person and that they admire you. Even if they say you are bad and they despise you, you probably can let them believe it, without getting too upset over it.
If you are good, and somebody says that you are bad, rather than become hurt because of their impression of you - as if you are already given to believe them, you will just wonder why they got it wrong, or what is wrong with them.
If you are good, you are not going to sue anyone for just thinking negatively of you, if you didn't suffer any tangible loss because of it.
You won't sue them for causing you psychological distress, because there will be no psychological distress, at least no psychological distress that you deem undeserved.
If you are a good person, and someone said something bad about you, which is true, you will likely just accept the pain it causes, even if it causes you psychological distress, simply because it is the nature of good people to accept whatever is true, even if it is hurtful, as something that is deserved.
If somebody said something bad about you, which is untrue, but it did not cause you any tangible damages, it will also not cause you any psychological distress, because you will be capable of not thinking about, or changing your thoughts if you are thinking about it, or let the negative impression that others have of you prevent you from being able to be comfortable being you.
It is only if the bad and untrue things that somebody said about you, which caused you tangible or non- psychological distress - like if somebody said that you did something bad like steal something, when you didn’t, which caused you to get into trouble with the police - that will move you to sue them for slander or defamation.
Even then, as ex federal court judge Harmindar said, you will likely just sue them for vindication and cost, not to shut them up forever or inflict pain on them, by making them suffer hundreds of thousands or millions of ringgit in damages.
According to Harmindar: “Political parties, organisations, governments, and corporations should not be allowed to sue for defamation.”
I heartily agree with him, because entities like political parties, government and corporations hold strategic position in the country, and we need to make sure that bad people and losers are not able to rise up in these entities until they are in a position to control the country, and the way that we can prevent it, is by ensuring that political parties, organisations, governments, and corporations cannot sue people for defamation.
If political parties, organisations, governments, and corporations cannot sue people for defamation, it will only be good people or winners that will be able to rise in these entities, because if we subject those who wish to rise to top position with free speech, it only the good and the winners that will be able to rise, by tolerating, ignoring and not being affected by the negative comments that they might face in their journey to the top, regardless of whether it is true or untrue.
If you are a loser or a bad person, on the other hand, you won’t be able to tolerate, ignore and not be affected by negative opinions about you, even if it is true, and give up on your desire to rise to the top half way through.
By having an excessive level of defamation law, which can bankrupt a person through it extravagant awards, simply for causing psychological hurt to a person in a political party, organisation, governments, or corporations, we are making it possible for losers and bad people to rise up and control a political party, organisation, governments, or corporation.
Bad people - or people who believe that they can only taste happiness in their life by causing unhappiness to others – obviously have a lot of things to hide.
When bad people see a means of hiding all the bad things that they have done through defamation laws, they can rise up to important strategic positions in the country unimpeded, which will then obviously cause the people and the to suffer.
When losers rise up to important strategic positions in the country, the people and the country are also going to suffer because losers do not know how to rule without being oppressive and tyrannical.
It is only the good and the winner who can rule without being oppressive and tyrannical, because they will naturally command the respect and admiration of those they rule.
Losers on the other hand, must use the powers in their hand, to oppress and suppress those they rule, in order to induce the ones that they rule to respect them through fear.
To ensure that only the good and the winners rise to the top, we must put them to test, and subject them to opinions that might not be favourable to them, regardless if it is true or false.
As fire is the test of gold, adverse opinion about oneself – regardless if it is true or not – is the test of winners and good people.
It is only those who can bear it that deserve to sit in the high positions.
Excessive defamation law, that can be used by those who aspire to rule and reign, to stifle any negative news about them, prevents powerful individuals from being tested, which then makes it difficult to tell apart the winners and the good, from the losers and the bad.
When we can't tell apart the winners and the good from the losers and the bad, then we are most definitely at risk of ending up being ruled and controlled by losers or bad people, who will either oppress and suppress us, or cause us to suffer just so they can feel pleasure.
TheRealNehruism (nehru.sathiamoorthy@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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