COMMENT | Over two days last May, Home Ministry officials raided 11 Swatch stores nationwide for displaying its Pride Collection.

Dozens of watches with their faces in various shades of rainbow - adopted as a symbol of the LGBTQ+ community - were seized.

Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail defended the enforcement actions, citing public complaints and provisions under the Printing Presses and Publications Act (PPPA) 1984.

"We have the law, the source of power, and there is a public complaint, so action was taken.

“Swatch products have been banned as they are detrimental, or possibly detrimental, to morality, the public interest and national interest by promoting, supporting and normalizing the LGBTQ+ movement which is not accepted by the Malaysian public,” he said in a statement.

A week later, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said the Swatch collection of colourful watches included the...