“I may not agree with you, but I will defend to the death your right to make an ass of yourself.”

― Oscar Wilde

COMMENT | Syahredzan Johan’s piece asking if free speech is also for fascists (it is) is a welcome contribution to the free speech discourse in this country. As someone who has been targeted by the far right (and by certain segments of the “moderate centre” of this country) for things I have written, the issue of free speech is something I take very seriously.

I note that Syahredzan had to add the qualifier, “this writer is not advocating absolute freedoms” as a means to preempt straw men that those against free speech like to use on people they disagree with. I am sure there are proponents of absolute freedom of speech but in most countries, the fight has always been to limit the state from intruding into our public and private spaces using laws designed to promote political agendas at the expense of legitimate dissent.

The fact that repulsive speech is also part of the speech that free speech advocates have to protect does not mean that laws that limit speech – libel, slander, incitement, etc- should be abandoned but they should always be open to scrutiny. However, I suspect Syahredzan knows this already.

In the Malaysian context, concluding that free speech is also for fascists is not a Herculean endeavour. Racial supremacy, religious supremacy, policies that benefit a specific race, educational institutions for a specific race but most importantly, mainstream political narratives embraced by Malays and non-Malays are all fascist in nature. Hence asking if free speech is meant for fascists is meaningless.

What Helmi Effendy said, when you really think about it, is not something which...