By Robert Pei, President, SSRANZ
KOTA KINABALU: The Sarawak–Sabah Rights Australia New Zealand (SSRANZ) expresses its grave outrage at the arrest of Malaysian journalist Rex Tan under the colonial-era Sedition Act 1948, following a question he posed at a public lecture by British political commentator George Galloway in Kuala Lumpur.
What Rex Tan asked was grounded in the lived and documented realities of Malaysia today. It is Mr Galloway—not the journalist—who bears responsibility for dismissing legitimate concerns and defending an unjust and inequitable system.
This arrest represents a serious overreach and a blunt assault on freedom of expression, exposing—within days—the hollowness of the Madani government’s PKR leaders’ long-professed commitment to justice, equality, and democratic reform.
This reversal is particularly stark given PKR’s own record in government. Following the 2018 general election, the Pakatan Harapan (PH)–led administration, under the leadership of these same PKR figures, discontinued federal court action to de-register the Sarawak Association of People’s Aspirations (SAPA), explicitly on the ground that such action was inconsistent with the new government’s stated commitment to freedom of expression.
The present resort to sedition and criminal sanction against a journalist therefore represents not continuity, but a repudiation of principles PKR once publicly upheld.
George Galloway’s sweeping denial — and its immediate collapse
At a lecture on 12 January 2026, Mr Galloway publicly ridiculed Rex Tan for raising a legitimate and thoughtful question: whether Malaysia’s entrenched system of race-based constitutional preferences bears any structural resemblance to the forms of apartheid Mr Galloway rightly condemns elsewhere.
Mr Galloway dismissed the question as “grotesque” and asserted that Malaysia is a “harmonious multiracial success.” This claim is demonstrably false.
Malaysia’s legal and political architecture includes:
constitutionally entrenched bumiputera supremacy (Articles 153 and 160 of the Federal Constitution);
race-based quotas in education, public service, and public procurement;
differential citizenship and religious status; and
a parallel legal system that denies equal standing to non-Muslims.
These structures have been repeatedly criticised by SUHAKAM, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), and international development institutions.
The irony is stark: within 48 hours of Mr Galloway’s sweeping endorsement of Malaysia’s racial “harmony,” the Madani government arrested a journalist for asking a question about racial inequality. Reality punctured rhetoric almost immediately.
The subsequent midnight arrest under an antiquated colonial law demonstrates that the government is more invested in performative harmony than in open debate—precisely the kind of repression Mr Galloway routinely condemns in Western states. In failing to recognise the parallel between minority oppression in Malaysia and the injustices he decries in Gaza, Mr Galloway also overlooks the reality that Malaysia itself embodies a neo-colonial domination of Sabah and Sarawak.
A sedition arrest that exposes Madani hypocrisy
Rex Tan never used the word “apartheid.” He issued a full public apology. He resigned from his editorial position. None of this prevented his arrest.
In the early hours of 17 January 2026, police arrested Mr Tan under the Sedition Act 1948 and section 505(c) of the Penal Code, detained him overnight, and sought extended remand.
This is the same Sedition Act that:
the Madani coalition repeatedly promised to repeal while in opposition;
Malaysia’s Court of Appeal has ruled must be interpreted compatibly with constitutional free-speech guarantees; and
Malay-supremacist politicians routinely evade when they openly label minorities as pendatang or question their loyalty.
The selective enforcement of speech laws is unmistakable. Reformist rhetoric has given way to coercive continuity.
Minority oppression through manufactured racial outrage
SSRANZ observes a deeply entrenched pattern:
a minority voice raises a lawful but sensitive question;
the statement is exaggerated or distorted along racial lines;
outrage is mobilised through ethno-nationalist networks;
the individual is compelled to apologise; and
punishment follows regardless, to deter others.
This is not racial harmony. It is racial discipline enforced through law. SSRANZ emphasises that Malaysia’s race- and religion-based governance framework—rooted in the New Economic Policy (NEP) and its successor regimes—amounts to an institutionalised racial apartheid hierarchy that contradicts the foundational assurances of equality and partnership underlying the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63, if it was ever validly made).
Such a system is fundamentally incompatible with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the principles of the UN Charter—commitments that Madani government leaders once publicly pledged to uphold. The policing of speech that questions this structure, while preserving the structure itself, exposes a profound contradiction between reformist language and repressive practice.
Exaggerated sensitivity to questioning racial policy
SSRANZ is acutely aware of the exaggerated sensitivity displayed not only by the current Madani government, but by successive Malaysian administrations that have institutionalised racial hierarchy while responding punitively to any attempt to name or question it. Speech that challenges entrenched structures is routinely treated not as legitimate political discourse, but as provocation warranting sanction.
This climate of repression is not new. Harassment and persecution of opposition political actors in Sarawak has continued since 1963, particularly against those advocating autonomy, equality, or self-determination. Law enforcement has long been deployed as an instrument of political control rather than neutral public protection.
The most recent illustration of this pattern is the continued harassment of Mr Voon Lee Shan, President of Parti Bumi Kenyalang (PBK). Mr Voon has led his party in campaigning for Sarawak and Sabah independence on the basis that the two former British colonies were not properly decolonised and were transferred to Malaya under what PBK asserts was a void international treaty, the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63). Mr Voon has been summoned repeatedly by police, was recently compelled to surrender his mobile phone, and has been subjected to interrogation concerning his lawful political activities. Since the revival of the North Borneo independence movement in 2011, activists have similarly faced police harassment and legal action, including arrests and the banning of civil organisations advocating self-determination. Taken cumulatively, these actions amount to political intimidation by attrition.
SSRANZ further notes that repression extends beyond domestic actors to those who report on Malaysia from abroad. Mr Murray Hunter, an Australia journalist and academic, was convicted in absentia on defamation-related charges arising from his reporting on political repression in Malaysia. The pursuit of legal action against a foreign commentator not present in the jurisdiction reflects a broader pattern of judicial harassment and transnational intimidation aimed at silencing scrutiny beyond Malaysia’s borders. Beyond its territory, the Madani government has also engaged in surveillance of Sabah and Sarawak activists campaigning for independence. Notably, the symbolic raising of Sabah and Sarawak flags in Melbourne reportedly triggered a Malaysian police investigation, underscoring the extraterritorial reach of such repression.
Conclusion
Taken together, the arrest of Rex Tan, the harassment of opposition leaders such as Mr Voon Lee Shan, and the prosecution of foreign commentators reveal a systemic pattern of reprisals against those who question entrenched power structures.
This pattern has persisted across administrations and continues under the Madani government, notwithstanding its repeated promises of reform, justice, and equality.
SSRANZ observes that these actions violate international standards on freedom of expression and journalism, including those articulated by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression. The use of arrests, investigations, and prosecutions in response to lawful speech constitutes reprisals, produces a chilling effect on public discourse, and amounts to judicial harassment incompatible with Malaysia’s international human rights obligations.
In light of the seriousness of the politically motivated harassment directed at PBK, its leaders, and other activists, SSRANZ is preparing a formal submission to the UN Special Rapporteur seeking urgent attention and intervention.
SSRANZ will continue to monitor, document, and internationalise these developments, and to stand in solidarity with all those penalised simply for speaking, questioning, or organising peacefully within the bounds of the law.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Jesselton Times.
