Police will take action against members of the public who attend a course on Marxism organised by Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM), warned inspector-general of police Khalid Abu Bakar.

"It's not just the organisers, but participants who attend the (Marxism) course, which is against the law, will also have action taken against them by the police," Khalid tweeted today.

Khalid had previously said police would call up the course's organisers, saying it was an attempt to revive communism in Malaysia.

The IGP, however, has not said which laws the course would run foul of.

In 2011, six PSM activists known as the 'EO6' were detained under the Emergency Ordinance after first being probed for trying to wage war against the King for possessing 'communist paraphernalia'.

The Emergency Ordinance has since been abolished but NGO Lawyers for Liberty executive director Eric Paulsen did not discount the use of laws such as the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act (Sosma) against the course organisers and participants.

"Now there are more offences that have been created under the Penal Code for offences against the state so who knows what the IGP has in mind," Paulsen told Malaysiakini .

He said that teaching and learning about Marxism was not a crime and the subject was actually taught in universities around the world including in Malaysia.

"If (learning Marxism) is a crime, then the university syllabus for law, economics, philosophy, political science, social studies and so on would need some serious changes to exclude Marxism," he said.

Course going ahead

Law professor Azmi Sharom concurred with Paulsen's views.

"If that's the case, then any ideology which is not being practised by Malaysia can't be studied," Azmi said when contacted.

PSM secretary-general A Sivarajan said the party still plans to go ahead with the course.

"If they (police) really want us to stop it, then write to us officially, give a reason why it has to be stopped and according to what law," he said.

Sivarajan said until he gets such a letter, he will assume the IGP's comments are a form of intimidation.

He added that people were still signing up for the course despite the IGP's warnings.

PSM has rejected that it is reviving communism, insisting that the course actually touches on the failures of communism in other parts of the world, as well as the downside of capitalism.