I read with amusement the latest barb that Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil applied against the Machang Member of Parliament Wan Ahmad Fayhsal Wan Ahmad Kamal.
Wan Ahmad Fayhsal had earlier challenged Fahmi and Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli to a debate.
In response, Fahmi retorted : “He ( Wan Fahysal) is a person who craves attention and if he wants to debate he should not bring a poison-pen letter to Parliament... he should come to Parliament and debate according to the rules.
“I believe he is simply seeking attention and wants to be in the spotlight,“ said Fahmi to reporters after inaugurating the Jejak Panda programme by Foodpanda Malaysia at Pantai Dalam on 13 August.
Now Fahmi knew that his statement regarding Wan Fahysal will be carried out by the press who were covering the event he was speaking on.
Fahmi also recently came out strongly against fake news and cyberbullying, to the extent that he has even introduced a new law that requires social media companies to apply for licence before they will be allowed to operate in Malaysia.
Considering that, I was wondering whether Fahmi would consider his own statement against Wan Fahysal as a case of cyberbullying or the perpetuation of misinformation or fake news.
I say so because I am pretty sure that Fahmi does not have any psychological report that would certify Wan Fahysal as a “attention craving person”. By a reasonable person’s standard, calling a person “attention seeking” publicly when all that person did was call you for a debate can also be labelled as an attempt to shame or bully that person.
As the communication minister, Fahmi should know that according to Section 233(1)(a) of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 (“CMA”), it is a crime to use network facilities or network services by a person to transmit any communication that is deemed to be offensive and could cause annoyance to another person.
If convicted under Section 233(3) of the CMA, a person can even find themselves imprisoned for one year.
Now I personally feel that what Fahmi said was just his opinion, and in a free country, it should not be a criminal offense for a person to say out loud what they hold to be true in their heart and mind, even if other people might take offense to it or not find it disagreeable.
But considering that section 233 (3) is of the opinion that you cannot say anything that could cause annoyance to another person, and considering that Fahmi himself has stated that he is dead set against the perpetuation of fake news and cyberbullying, than I would like to ask Fahmi, by his own standards, how would he judge his statement against Wan Fahysal?
Did he say it with the intention of causing annoyance to Wan Fahysal ?
Does he have any factual basis of calling Wan Fahysal what he called him?
Would it be wrong to say that he was attempting to shame or perhaps even bully Wan Fahysal?
If his answer is no, yes and yes, then perhaps he should explain to us why his answer is so, so that we can use his answer as a precedent to declare our own innocence, in case someone were to question us like the way that I am questioning him.
If by his own standards, his answer is yes, no and no, then perhaps Fahmi should set a good example, and file a police report against himself.
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