PKR president-designate Anwar Ibrahim said today while he is principally against the move to ban books, exceptions should be made for certain titles including British author Salman Rushdie's 1988 novel, “The Satanic Verses”.

"My view is that I am not keen towards book banning, with exception of (certain titles) including ‘The Satanic Verses’.

"(Books that) mock, condemn religion, the Prophet, Islam [...] those we have to take caution against," Anwar said during a press conference at his new office in Petaling Jaya.

"If it’s only a matter of differences in opinions, then we should allow for more creative license and the people can think for themselves," he said.

Anwar, who is PKR president-designate, earlier met with a group of national laureates and local authors who raised their concerns about issues surrounding the Malay language and the arts.

Anwar said among concerns raised during the meeting was the use of vulgarities by MPs in parliament.

"There were many people who commented on the MPs' performance in Parliament, on their weak grasp of the language and use of coarse language.

"I welcome the criticisms and I will raise it further," said Anwar.

'An embarrassment' 

"Those who have a weak grasp of the language, there is nothing wrong for the Parliament to organise a language course like the one we did in Selangor when we first took over the state government in 2008," he said.

"Otherwise it could cause an embarrassment when our children hear or see that their grasp of the language is weaker than even SPM students.”

In the first Dewan Rakyat session that ended yesterday, two MPs had triggered an outcry with their use of vulgarities during a heated argument.

Kinabatangan MP Bung Mokhtar Radin had uttered the "F-word" word twice after Willie Mongin (Harapan-Puncak Borneo) questioned if he had gone to a casino.

Jelutong MP RSN Rayer, meanwhile, was similarly caught uttering an obscene remark during a question time session earlier this month.