The Malaysian Insight

EVERYONE will be affected by the Anti-Fake News Bill 2018 when it finally gets approved.

What it does is simply this – it allows the authorities to shape and define what is fact and what is fiction.

It allows the authorities to determine the size of the football pitch, the width and height of the goalposts, as the case may be.

Heck, it can even keep redefining what nasi lemak is depending on the time of day.

In other words, you are living in the Big Brother’s matrix. They define your reality and unreality, no matter what is outside the territories and waters of Malaysia.

Not that Malaysia is a lawless land. There is the Defamation Act 1957, which defines slander and libel. There is the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Act 1998, which prosecutes those who abuse networks for falsities.

Yes, falsities. Fake news, fake everything. Complete with the broad definition of the offence and penalties that are not as wide or harsh as this new piece of legislation tabled by the ruling Barisan Nasional government.

This legislation might say it covers the world, but specifically, it is to police those who live in Malaysia. It imprisons your thoughts and it curtails your freedom of expression because truth is now owned by the authorities.

It means you can think, but you can’t share your thoughts. It means your truth could be what the government of the day thinks is false.

In the end, the government of the day gets to control and keep its narrative – no matter what the outside world says. We will be the happiest and most moderate nation because the government says so.

Think North Korea. We will be that – a paradise in their mind, but nowhere else.

This law is better than any “Green Dam” or security law to filter news and control the internet. Because it just invokes fear to keep knowledge within your mind when it contradicts the government narrative.

You have to wonder the reasons for such a confident government to enact such a law. You have to wonder the reasons that only their narrative must be held up as the truth, and everything that is contradictory is fake.

Be that as it may, the only way to fight this law is to know the truth and to keep repeating it in the face of those who call it fake.

After all, prophets of the past endured such accusations until they were proven right. – March 26, 2018.