The Home Ministry’s Publication Control and Quranic Text Division today confirmed the seizure of Malaysiakini published ‘1Funny Malaysia’ and ‘Where is Justice?’.

book 1funny malaysia When contacted earlier, Penang Home Ministry Publication Control and Quranic Text Division enforcement unit head, Tengku Rosnani Tengku Yusof, confirmed that her officers conducted the seizure.

“The books have been taken because we want to investigate the publications. They are not banned, but we discourage distribution of those books pending the outcome.

“The books were seized during a routine operation by our officers. Currently we only have seized copies from one book store, but we will continue to look out for these books in our daily operations.”

It is understood that the books are being studied for seditious content which could compromise the harmony of the country.

When pressed for further details, she told Malaysiakini to speak to the enforcement unit’s headquarters in Putrajaya as she is not authorised to release further information or statements.  

Officers unavailable

Malaysiakini’s attempts to contact the ministry’s publication control and Quranic text division headquarters in Putrajaya however failed to reveal any further information.

book where is justice According to the staff who answered the phone at the division’s office, the officers in charge of the division and other senior enforcement officers were unavailable due to court cases and a meeting at the Information Ministry.

Attempts to contact Home Ministry chief secretary Mahmood Adam for comments has also failed.

Meanwhile when called to confirm the earlier seizure of the same books in Malacca, the ministry’s publication control and Quranic text division in Malacca denied any knowledge of it.

A senior enforcement officer, who declined to be named, said that they had no copies in their possession and have not, as far as he knew, conducted any seizure of the books.

It is learned that the seizures in Malacca were conducted by police officers from the Special Branch. This was confirmed by the Malacca district police headquarters.

According to the officer who answered the call, the case is handled by Chief Inspector Zaarah Bte Md. Idrus of the special branch. However, she was not immediately available for comment.

Team of three

The first incident took place in Penang on Jan 8, when a team of three KDN officers descended upon the Popular Book store in the  Melaka Shopping Complex and proceeded to seize copies of the Malaysiakini published books.

According to an employee who spoke under condition of anonymity, the officers took 30 copies of ‘1Funny Malaysia’ and four copies of ‘Where is Justice?’.

“They showed us their authority cards, issued us a letter and took the books away. They said they wanted to investigate the books. We have decided to take the books off our shelves and sent the rest back to the distributor GerakBudaya pending their investigation.”

The employee added the officers also took away copies of a magazine.

The seizures in Malacca took place yesterday. A team of five police officers conducted the raid on the Popular Book Store in the Melaka Shopping Complex.

The store manager who only identified herself as Ms Ong said that five police officers came to the store at about 5pm.

She said, “They showed us their identity cards and told us that they wanted to take the books away. They also issued a letter to us to that effect.”

Both ‘1Funny Malaysia’ and ‘Where is Justice?’ are published by Kinibooks , a fully owned subsidiary of Malaysiakini .

More information at Kinibooks:

'1FunnyMalaysia'

'Where is Justice?