Human rights organisation Suaram faced numerous challenges in tackling cases related to criticism of the Johor royalty and the state football team.

These included receiving online threats and the difficulty of getting Johor lawyers to defend the critics.

Its executive director Sevan Doraisamy said Suaram received at least 13 cases related to criticism of the royalty in the first half of 2016.

All of them are being probed or charged under Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 (CMA).

He said the organisation practised extra precautions when handling the cases.

“We have to be very careful in our statements. We tried to defend freedom of expression (of the critics). We don't want to get caught and have to be rescued.

“You can read the comments against Suaram on our website and Facebook. People are threatening us. One user asked us: 'Are you going to wage war against our prince?'” he told a press conference when launching Malaysia Human Rights Report 2015 in Kuala Lumpur today.

Sevan was responding to a question on what kind of challenges Suaram was facing when handling the Johor-related cases.

He said Suaram had to get lawyers from Kuala Lumpur to help out because it was difficult to engage Johor lawyers to tackle these sensitive cases.

In the meantime, Johor police have been tracking down online critics of the Johor Crown Prince Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim.

On May 31, police boarded a fishing boat at sea to arrest a 46-year-old man who went by the Facebook handle of ‘Minah Pendek’.

Three days previously, police arrested a 23-year-old assistant chef in Dengkil over comments he allegedly posted on Facebook that disparaged Tunku Ismail.

On May 26, Pahang football fan Masyhur Abdullah, 29, was remanded to facilitate investigations over an image he allegedly posted under the Twitter handle @thekeluangman.

Many of Masyhur's allegedly offensive remarks are believed to be related to the state football team, as Tunku Ismail is the owner of the Johor Darul Takzim football club.

All of the critics had either been investigated or charged under Section 233 of CMA. which criminalises the ‘improper use’ of network facilities with the intent of annoying, abusing, or threatening another person'.

Alarming trend

In response, Suaram adviser Kua Kia Soong said the Johor police have gone berserk in hunting down the critics.

“This is an alarming trend... I have heard that in many cases the Johor police have been pursuing the critics wherever they are in Malaysia,” he said.

Suaram coordinator Dobby Chew said the government was now relying on CMA to suppress critics, rather than the Sedition Act.

“... the Malaysian government is shifting focus away from the Sedition Act. CMA doesn't carry a heavy label like the Sedition Act, which is operated as a colonial mechanism.

“CMA doesn't have any of this attached to it. It can be used and operated freely.”

The government wielded the Sedition Act 220 times last year, with 206 investigations, 11 charges and three convictions.

Meanwhile, there were 37 cases under CMA in 2015.

However, this year saw a drastic drop in sedition cases – just 11 as at June 2016, compared with 15 under CMA.

Sevan said Malaysia's human rights record in 2015 was worse than the previous year's.
He said this was due to the passing of several "oppressive" bills, including the National Security Council Bill 2015, the Prevention of Terrorism Bill 2015, and the Sedition (Amendment) Bill 2015.

Sevan added that human right defenders also faced a more uphill task when dealing with the judiciary.

“Previously they could get police bail. But in 2015, they started to charge everyone in court. You need to face a lot of things.

“You have to engage with the court and hire a lawyer,” he said, adding that the process could get very tiresome.