A Kuala Lumpur bookstore was raided this week by officials from Malaysia’s Ministry of Home Affairs who seized two horror novels suspected to have gone against public morality.
It was Wednesday evening at Fixi bookstore when officials from Malaysia’s Home Affairs Ministry arrived to confiscate copies of Jelik, a horror series that means “repulsive” in Malay.
But Fixi founder Amir Muhammad was relaxed when he spoke to the ABC.
“This has happened to us four times,” he said.
PEN Malaysia has condemned the raid on a Kuala Lumpur bookstore, saying it was a form of intimidation. (X/@BukuFixi)
Jelik, written by Ismi Fa Ismail, is about twin brothers who go missing while filming a documentary.
It contains gory and psychological elements.
Mr Muhammad said he was told authorities had taken the books to assess whether they contravened Malaysia’s Printing and Publications Act.
“If they ban it, they’ll say it has something to do with going against moral values,”
Mr Muhammad said.
Free speech advocacy group PEN Malaysia condemned the raid.
“This act of intimidation violates the right to publish, sell and freedom of literary works,” it said in a statement.
“Bookstores … [are] an important space for debate in a democratic country.”
The Malaysian government has been contacted for comment.
Australian book made illegal in Malaysia
At least 13 books have been banned in Malaysia this year — ranging from romance books that have gone viral on TikTok, to children’s and young adult fiction that explore gender and sexuality.
Melbourne-based children’s author Scott Stuart woke up in February to discover his picture book My Shadow is Purple had been prohibited from sale in Malaysia.
Australian children’s publisher Larrikin House, which published it back in 2022, described it as a book that “considers gender beyond binary in a vibrant spectrum of colour”.
“It wasn’t a book about murder, or assault, or any crime that got banned for harming morality,” Stuart said in an Instagram post several days after his book was banned.
“They chose to ban a book about being yourself.“
The ABC contacted Stuart for comment.
Malaysia’s Ministry of Home Affairs said the book had been banned because it “may be harmful to morals”.
Same-sex acts are illegal in Malaysia, a Muslim-majority country, although convictions are rare.
Detained for working on a banned book
At least on paper, the punishments for distributing or possessing banned literature in Malaysia are harsh.
Those found guilty of printing, importing and circulating the books can face up to three years in prison, a fine of 20,000 Malaysian ringgit ($7,200), or both.
For someone found in possession of one of the banned titles, there are fines of up to 5,000 ringgit ($1,800).
Sydney journalist Kean Wong was detained last year by Malaysian authorities for being the editor of a banned non-fiction book entitled Rebirth: Reformasi, Resistance, and Hope in New Malaysia.
Kean Wong says politicians in South-East Asia use “external enemies” to distract from domestic issues. (ABC Nightlife)
“That book was partly a collection of a series from the historic 2018 Malaysian elections, which saw the first change in government since independence in over 60 years,” Wong told the ABC.
It was banned in 2020 after the Malaysian government deemed it “potentially prejudicial to public order, security and national interest”.
They stated that the cover went against Malaysia’s Emblems and Names Act because it bore a resemblance to the country’s coat of arms.
Wong said he had been “blacklisted” by authorities and was arrested while in Malaysia to renew his passport.
He was released after 24 hours in a police cell.
‘Banning ideas’ doesn’t always work
Experts told the ABC that Malaysia’s censorship regime undermined its democratic credentials — yet was likely ineffective.
South-East Asian governments prioritise stability over freedom of expression, Syaza Shukri says. (Supplied)
Islamic International University of Malaysia political scientist Syaza Shukri said book bans often backfired.
“You’re banning ideas from these books and the same ideas can be found anywhere else,”
she said.
“We humans can find ways around things, with social media and the internet these days.
“I don’t think it works because it just intrigues people.”
Chong Ton Sin founded independent Malaysian publisher and bookstore Gerakbudaya 25 years ago and is familiar with state intimidation and censorship.
Gerakbudaya founder Chong Ton Sin wants Malaysians to have access to a diverse range of books. (Supplied: GerakBudaya)
Malaysian bookstores were subjected to routine checks by authorities, he said.
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“They come at least once a year, and sometimes they do it more than once a year,”
Mr Chong said.
Left-wing literature including books about communism used to be targeted, but scrutiny has shifted to books with LGBTQ themes, Mr Chong said.
Curtin University ethics professor Anthony Langlois agreed with Dr Shukri that censorship was often ineffective.
But he said book bans could still be harmful — particularly to Malaysia’s democratic credentials.
“The idea behind a democracy is that there is still this space where we have a constant, ongoing debate about who we want to be as a society,” he said.
Political distraction via ‘external enemies’
Malaysia is not the only country where book bans are common.
Book bans are at an all-time high in the United States, with 10,000 books banned in 2023-24 according to free expression advocacy group PEN America.
In Australia, some conservative religious groups have tried to have children’s books about gender and sexuality banned.
But South-East Asian governments are particularly enthusiastic when it comes to censorship.
“It’s more, I think, of an ASEAN thing, about that sense of stability and societal cohesiveness that is prioritised,” said Dr Syukri, referring to the countries of the 10-member Association of South-East Asian Nations.
Arts Equator, an organisation that promotes South-East Asian art, has tracked the oppression of artistic freedom in the region.
Malaysia recorded the highest number of violations between 2010 and 2024, it found, with the majority of that activity focused on publication.
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Book bans were undoubtedly a “political project of the extreme right”, Professor Langlois said.
But he said there was not an inherent link between religiosity and censorship.
Many Christians or Muslims were accepting of queer people, he said, arguing that book bans were symptomatic of broader political trends.
Wong’s book was banned a few months after Malaysia had a sudden change in government in the beginning of 2020.
“There’s a long tradition, not just in Malaysia but in South-East Asia, where, when politics is uncertain, you try and direct your political focus on external enemies,”
he said.
