The High Court in Kuala Lumpur today upheld the ban imposed on several locally published cartoon books by Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein.

NONE Dismissing the juidicial review filed by cartoonist Zunar's Sepakat Efektif Sdn Bhd and publisher Mkini Dotcom Sdn Bhd, judge Rohaya Yusuf said the minister was correct in banning the books.

"The court takes into view the sensitivities surrounding the country," she said.

"Looking at the statement and affidavit by the minister and balancing it against the position of the sensitivity issues in the country, in my view there are sufficient materials before the minister to come to the ban.

"I do not find the decisions to be in defiance of logic that it is arbitrarily made, or that it is based on improper facts," Justice Rohaya said in delivering her judgment at the appellate and special powers court this morning.

The home minister had banned two books '1 Funny Malaysia' and 'Perak Darul Kartun' by Zunar ( below, in black T-shirt ) - whose real name is Zulkiflee Anwar Ulhaq - in November 2009.

NONE Minister Hishammuddin had also banned a book by Malaysiakini columnist Kim Quek ( left, in white shirt ) - whose real name is Yong Thye Chong - entitled 'The March to Putrajaya', 33 copies of which were seized.

Kim's publisher Oriengroup is the third party that had filed the application for judicial review.

The minister had stated that the publications are "not suitable and are detrimental to public order", and that they could "influence the people to revolt against the leaders and government policies".

This prompted the judicial review application, which was filed on July 26, 2010.

'Public order over civil liberties'

Delivering her judgement, Justice Rohaya also said that a person's fundamental provisions could be restricted if public order was at stake.

"Having apprised the above facts, and having looked at the affidavit of the minister which disclosed the materials (reasons for the banning) and his opinion, in my view there is no irrationality involved.

"Because of this public order issue, there is therefore a need to restrict fundamental liberties provisions guaranteed under the federal constitution," she said before dismissing the application with no order on costs.

NONE When met outside the courtroom, both Zunar and Kim said that they would be appealing against the decision to the highest level possible despite their lack of confidence that the courts would be in favour of them.

"The Malaysian courts are like the atmosphere. The higher you go up, the less oxygen there is," said Kim.

Zunar also said that he had already 'expected' the judgment.

"In Malaysia, there is a higher chance of (right-wing Malay politician) Ibrahim Ali joining MCA than us winning a case against the government," he said to a round of laughter.

Counsel Edmund Bon, who is representing Sepakat Efektif, Mkini Dotcom and Oriengroup, later told reporters that the judgment was applied wrongly, since the judge had relied solely on the minister's affidavit.

"She didn't look at our reasons why the minister's statement was wrong... the restriction (order on books) must be reasonable. In effect, what the judge is saying is that 'it is reasonable because the minister said so'.

"It cannot be the case because this is a test of objectivity. She herself must read the books," he said.

The decision is a setback for freedom of expression and freedom of speech in Malaysia, said Bon.

Despite the banning, Zunar's other books are available from Kinibooks , including his latest title, ' Even My Pen Has a Stand' .