The government has moved to ban any Swatch watches or related material – including boxes – containing LGBT influences.
The Home Ministry in a statement today said the ban is being enacted under Section 7 of the Printing Presses and Publications Act (PPPA) 1984 and that a gazette had been issued.
Further, it stated that Section 8(2) of the same act carries punishments for selling, distributing, or owning banned material, which included up to three years in jail, a fine of up to RM20,000, or both.
Section 7 of the PPPA gives the home minister wide-ranging authority to ban items.
Section 7(1) states that a ban via a gazette can be issued “if the minister is satisfied that any publication contains any article, caricature, photograph, report, notes, writing, sound, music, statement or any other thing which is in any manner prejudicial to or likely to be prejudicial to public order, morality, security, or which is likely to alarm public opinion, or which is or is likely to be contrary to any law or is otherwise prejudicial to or is likely to be prejudicial to public interest or national interest”.
Previously in 2015, the then-BN government used the same provisions to ban Bersih T-shirts.
The Court of Appeal struck down the Bersih T-shirts gazette, calling the ban unreasonable.
In late May, the Home Ministry raided Swatch stores to seize watches from its Rainbow collection due to LGBT connotations.
The ban comes two days before voting in the six state elections – in which the government is hoping to make gains in Kedah, Kelantan, and Terengganu, and win over conservative voters.
Ilham Centre, in a survey published earlier today, suggested that only one in four Malays support Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.- Malaysiakini