PETALING JAYA, Sept 2 – DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng expressed the party’s horror with the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission’s (MCMC) decision to prosecute blogger Irwan Abdul Rahman.

He said the government’s action to charge the blogger, popularly known as Hassan Skodeng, for his satirical writing “was not only harsh but ridiculous”.

“Does this mean a satire or a joke is now illegal in Malaysia? What has become of our country?” he asked in a press statement today.

The Penang chief minister said he did not understand “why MCMC is wasting its energy and focus” on a trivial matter.

Instead, he said, the commission should spend more time in bringing culprits of racism to justice and problems of racism should be its number one priority.

“We are still celebrating our Merdeka and yet we still hear those who are acting against the spirit of the 1957 Federal Constitution with their racist and extreme remarks. We must never allow racism to become part and parcel of our society,” he said.

“We must also continue to fight for press freedom and freedom of expression. We are no longer living in fear of the Cold War and the threat of communism. We are living in the 21st century and we must respect freedom, democracy and human rights,” he added.

Irwan was charged in the Sessions Court here this morning with publishing the article “TNB to sue WWF over earth hour”.

He was accused of sending false comments in the article on the blog nose4news.wordpress.com <http://nose4news.wordpress.com>  with the intention to offend others.

Lim implored those in power to reconsider their decision to prosecute a citizen for merely sharing his creative wit.

Citing satirist Pak Sako, Lim said his works had managed to rile up the spirit of nationalism among the Malays and Malaya against the British colonial masters during the fight for Independence.

“It was the great satirist Jonathan Swift who said that ‘satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody’s face but their own’!” he said.

“At this moment, I believe a little bit of joke can brighten up our gloomy life and it shouldn’t be taken seriously. As someone has said it, the world always looks brighter from behind a smile,” he added.