PKR has taken the National Visual Arts Gallery (Balai Seni) to task for what it said was a “lazy” excuse for art censorship due to political pressure.

As such, its communications director Fahmi Fadzil ( right ) urged Balai Seni to stand up to the pressure and reinstate the two removed artworks into the Bakat Muda Sezaman 2013 exhibition which runs until March 3.

“As usual, the bureaucratic excuse of of ‘the work caused... distress among some visitors’ is lazy, far from adequate and is merely used to mask the political pressure applied directly and indirectly by Putrajaya on freedom of expression in Malaysia,” he said.

“Censorship of ideas expressed through the arts, particularly when the artistic commentary is critical of the ruling regime, is absolutely typical of the political paranoia that pervades Balai Seni and other institutions that ‘police’ artistic work.”

Fahmi, who was a theatre activist before joining politics, said that artists are “public intellectuals” and must be accorded space to articulate their critiques on society.

Condemning the “unsurprising” development, he urged the authorities to loosen their grip as such public discourse enriches democracies.

Malaysiakini last week reported that Balai Seni had removed the works of two finalists from the Bakat Muda Sezaman 2013 competition from the show without informing the artists or jury.

The works - ‘alksnaabknuaunmo’ by Cheng Yen Pheng and ‘Insert#’ by Izat Arif Saiful Bahri - were removed from the Kuala Lumpur gallery ahead of the Bakat Muda Sezaman award ceremony officially opened by Tourism and Culture Minister Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz.

Cheng’s painting features the words ‘ABU=ASHES’ while Izat Arif’s installation piece includes a T-shirt printed with the Arabic letters ‘fa’ and ‘qof’.

Balai Seni in a statement said that it had removed the works because the works, which have been on display since October, were found to have caused “unhealthy and distressing impact” on visitors.

Last year, painter Anurendra Jegadeva's painting ‘I is for Idiot’ was seized by police from an exhibition at the ‘M50' show co-curated by Balai Seni in Publika, Kuala Lumpur, following a report that it was anti-Islam.

Balai Seni had prior to that rejected the installation work the ‘Malaysian Spring’ by Ng Sek San from being part of the M50 show, purportedly because Nazri was to officially open the show.

Ng’s work was prior to that copied by Pakatan Rakyat supporters throughout Malaysia in the lead-up to the 13th general election, and is seen as a symbol of political awakening.