“We will have a strict/precise definition. If you deliberately and repeatedly destroy the harmony of society, causing harm to people, buildings and others, this is considered an offence.”

- Mujahid Yusof Rawa, on the proposed Anti-Discrimination Act, National Harmony and Reconciliation Commission Act and the Religious and Racial Hatred Act.

COMMENT | Anyone who reads my columns knows what I think of Pakatan Harapan’s efforts to curb free speech with its proposed hate speech laws, but what surprises me – and it should not – is the hypocrisy that permeates the discourse when it comes to Harapan’s commitment to ensuring racial and religious harmony.

When it comes to these proposed hate speech laws, it does not matter where you stand on the issue. What matters is Harapan’s response to supposed hate speech when it comes to non-Malay power structures and the mendacity of mainstream political power groups – Malay and non-Malay – when it comes to the racial politics of this country.

The recent allegations by former Bersatu vice-president Hamidah Osman that Lim Kit Siang (above) engineered the creation of Bersatu to drain Malay votes from Umno is the kind of talk that theoretically should run afoul of whatever hate speech laws the mandarins of Putrajaya are brewing.

Instead, what it becomes is another way in which the Harapan government resorts to the kind of identity politics, which ultimately will be its downfall...