“Section 298 blends well with Malaysia’s populace for preserving sensitivity of religion, which is essential.” - Judge K Muniandy

COMMENT | While the news cycle was dominated by the retirement of former chief justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat, an extremely important decision made by the judiciary passed unnoticed.

The Court of Appeal decided that all was kosher with the “hurt feelings law” and that the creators of the film “Mentega Terbang” had to make their case in criminal proceedings.

What is important to understand here is that the state is going to prosecute two filmmakers based on a vague law with no clear definitions and solely on the fact that “feelings were hurt”, a point made by N Suredran.

“What is wounding the feelings of one person is not wounding to another person. It is completely subjective as each person reacts differently.

“Looking at the Criminal Procedure Code, there is no definition of what wounding religious feelings consists of,” Surendran said.