Malaysians can believe in and practise communism, say lawyers, as provisions controlling the spread of the ideology in Malaysia have been repealed.
Senior lawyer V Sithambaram said those who were involved in the underground communist movements were previously nabbed under regulations related to the Emergency Ordinance (EO).
“There were about 150 regulations related to the Emergency Ordinance but this law has been repealed, so all of those regulations would have collapsed,” Sithambaram said.Similarly, lawyer Syahredzan Johan (right) said, the Internal Security Act (ISA) 1960, used to fight the spread of communism, has been repealed.

“The law said you can’t use certain emblems or military drills and this was in relation to the communist threat> But the ISA is no longer there.

“The government can make an organisation unlawful using the Societies Act 1966, but it cannot make an entire ideology unlawful,” Syahredzan said when contacted.

Inspector-General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar yesterday warned against the revival of communism in Malaysia and said stern action would be taken against those bringing in mementoes from Chin Peng’s funeral for this purpose.

The former Communist Party of Malaysia secretary-general passed away in exile Bangkok on Sept 16 and was cremated there on Monday. The government said it will not allow his ashes into Malaysia.

‘No seizures without gazetted ban’

Two men were detained yesterday under suspicion of smuggling in Chin Peng’s ashes, but were found to only have brought in CDs and booklets that had been distributed during Chin Peng’s funeral.

The items, including a cap that one of the men said he bought when he was a tourist in Vietnam, were seized and have not been returned even though both men were not arrested nor charged.

Commenting on this, the lawyers said items like books and CDs can only be seized if the home minister had banned them and the ban gazetted under the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984.

Syahredzan said Section 31 of the Customs Act 1967 gives power to the minister to prohibit the importation of any “goods or class of goods”.
“My reading of this is that the minister cannot ban a specific product, like a particular book about Chin Peng. It has to be a general type of goods, like ‘books on communism’,” he said.

This would, however, be tricky to enforce, Sithambaram said, as items related to communist leaders are in abundance in Malaysia today.
“How do you deal with people wearing Stalin, Mao or Che Guevara T-shirts? These people were communists, too, but maybe this particular communist (Chin Peng) is more disliked than others,” Sithambaram added.