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PPPA first introduced by the British colonial government as the Printing Ordinance of
1948 at the beginning of the state of emergency, in order to counteract Communist
activities that are seen as a threat to the establishment. All printing presses require a
licence granted by the Home Affairs Minister, renewed every year. In 1971 The
Ordinance was revised, after the race riots of 1969, and became the Printing Presses
and Publications Act (PPPA). Other than that in 1984 The PPPA was amended. The
Act provides that it is a criminal offense to possess or use a printing press without a
licence granted by the Home Affairs Minister.
Nowadays, the PPPA is the most powerful tool the government has to control the print
media. The law requires newspapers to obtain annual permits to publish. It also
provides the Home Minister with the discretion to suspend or revoke any newspapers
permit. The law was well-utilised in 2010 and there are no signs that the government
intends to even review, let alone abolish it. Interestingly, in June 2010, Umno Youth
chief Khairy Jamaluddin called for the PPPA to be abolished to improve media
credibility; however he was largely ignored by his BN colleagues.
The most important way in which the BN uses the PPPA is to maintain a monopoly on
ownership of the print media. Licences to print daily newspapers or political
magazines are given to either companies owned by component parties, or close BN
allies. Nevertheless, the Home Ministry used the PPPA against some of these cases,
perhaps illustrating to curtail the free exchange of opinions and ideas between the
citizens of Malaysia.
The only ground for banning the book is stated in the Order itself. Both books are said
to be prejudicial to public order. The Order is said to be made pursuant to Section 7
of the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984.
1 Funny Malaysia by Zunar
1Funny Malaysia was distributed by Malaysiakini in November 2009. All the cartoons
in this book were highlighted in the Malaysiakini site from October 2006 to
November 2009. Perak Darul Kartun was distributed by Zunar himself through his
distributed organization Sepakat Efektif Sdn. Bhd. in November 2009. This book
highlights political drawing of various specialists drove by Zunar. Since the books are
different, and are distributed by two different organizations, they have been exhorted
that they should file separate applications for judicial review.
The ban is an abuse of power by the Government to stifle legitimate criticism of the
ruling Governments policies and the current Prime Minister. We are at a loss to
understand how these political cartoons giving fair comment and satire of Malaysian
politics and politicians can pose a threat to public order (MalaysiaKini 2012).