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On June 7th, satirical political artist Fahmi Reza was barred from leaving the nation according to a report by the New Straits Times.
This comes just a few weeks after his recent barring from entering Sabah in May of this year as reported by the Malay Mail.
Fahmi Reza is a well known face in the public eye for his satirical posts of Malaysian politicians. Naturally, this has led him getting into some trouble with the law in the past.
However, this time he was not provided any reasoning as to why he was barred from travelling out of the nation, raising questions about the legality of such an action and the lack of transparency and accountability practiced by the government.
This is supported by the Malaysian Bar, which states that the lack of transparency on a ban usually means that a ban was done by discretion of authorities rather than substantiated facts.
Additionally, the lack of apology or accountability from government officials is disappointing as the only response he received was that there was no travel ban issued according to an article by the Malay Mail.
Furthermore, the case highlights a general shift towards arbitrary restrictions without going through the court process one is guaranteed. Everyone should be allowed to appeal a ban in a fair court of law before it goes into effect. This sentiment is echoed by DAP youth chief Woo Kah Leong in a Free Malaysia Today article where he states that Fahmi should have been brought to court and let the matter be decided by a judge instead of an immediate ban.
The government should be protecting our individual rights as a society and not actively weaponizing it against us. Transparency and accountability are key to any good governance and it needs to be utilised more on matters impacting citizens freedoms and rights.
Chan Kenn Jin (facestabber123@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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