Comparison of Freedom of Speech :Malaysia vs China

The reason of Restriction of Speech in China

1. Protecting their current political regime
The land that’s covering over china in over 9,700 km, and the population has exceeded over 14 trillion. Due to the land being too wide and have overpopulation has occurred in China, it has made China quite hard to manage. Chinese government has the fear afraid of information by leaked or spread by someone that could stir up people’s emotions, thus creating dissatisfaction amongst the people towards the party that running the country, So to avoid the occurrence of similar incidents, they are extremely strict in the control of information ,due to the fact China is a communist country. China government emphasise on the people for the government allegiance .So that , China does not allow any questioning voices exist.

2. Maintaining national stability
China is build up by the 55 Chinese ethnic minorities. Since Mongolia’s independence in 1949, many ethnic minorities tried to become independent autonomous. For protecting china stability, china government blanks off the difference voice.

The reason of Restriction of Speech in Malaysia

1. Maintenance of racial harmony
Malaysia composed by Malay,Chinese,Indian. Due to issue of racial is sensitive in Malaysia, Therefore, many people will try to incite inter-ethnic issues in an attempt to incite national security.

2.Protecting their current political regime
Since 13 May incident, the Malaysia Government has been working hard to suppress dissent, strict control over traditional media for spreading out unfavourable feedbacks of the Government, for example: Operasi Lalang , and PRINTING PRESSES AND PUBLICATIONS ACT1984

In my opinion, by comparing the two countries, i am more respectful to the Malaysian regulation because China is a communist country whereas Malaysia is a democratic country. Malaysia has tried for several years to come through the democratic method of reform, to make Malaysia a country where freedom of speech is prominent. For instance, Opposition in Malaysia has been fighting for freedom of speech at the parliament for all these years .

Freedom of speech is the important issue to encourage the democracy and the feedback from the residents can improve the development of government.

By comparing between China and Malaysia, I prefer the constitution of Malaysia. Although the constitution of Malaysia seems doesn’t refine as the Printing Presses and Publication Act 1984 established by the government used to control the freedom of speech, the government’s changing the constitution to ease. For example, the public need not to apply for a permit to publish their material. The traditional media need not be concerned because dissemination of critical of government and the license no longer get renewed. Compare to China, since the event happened in 4th May movement in 1919(The China’s government use violation to compress colleagues.),the regulation of freedom of speech become worse and worse again. Liu XiaoBo, the winner of the Nobel Peace Award 2010 which is also a Chinese dissident.

Since he tried to spread and encourage the public to fight for their human rights, he arrested and got into prison by the China government. Soon, all of his works were banned. Although Malaysia experienced such similar cases before, for example Operation Lalang, but the government seems more indulgence now through the event “Bersih”. To summarize, I prefer the regulation of freedom of speech in Malaysia than China because Malaysia’s freedom of speech is improving while China’s is still remaining as the same.