A Malaysian couple have been charged with sedition after posting a Ramadan greeting with them seen eating pork on Facebook.
Penulis: Faidzal Mochtar MKini
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Alvin Tan and Vivian Lee gained attention last year when a sex blog they had created went viral.
Alvin was an ASEAN law scholar at one of the top universities in Singapore but has now had his scholarship revoked.
His girlfriend Vivian Lee is a graduate from a local Malaysian university.
The blog was shut down by the couple due to family pressure.
They then set up a YouTube channel that featured videos discussing sex.
There were plenty of complaints about their posts... but it was not till they posted a controversial picture on their Facebook page that they got into legal trouble.
The picture shows them eating pork with a halal logo.
The government views this as a threat to national stability and racial harmony and charged them under the controversial sedition act.
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“It’s gone too far,” says Hishammuddin Husssein, Malaysia’s Defence Minister.
“It’s something that if we don’t fix people will start perceiving it as something normal... especially towards the youth. If not there will be people who use racial issues during Ramadan to divide society.”
The couple faces fines and time in prison if found guilty. But in a video, they have apologized for their actions.
“The reason that we are recording this video is to ask for forgiveness from all Malaysians for offending Muslims in this holy month of Ramadhan.”
They’ve spent a week and prison and have been set free on bail while waiting for the case with strict conditions set with their release.
“One of that is that their passport will be impounded and has to be given to the court for safe keeping,” says Alvin and Vivian’s lawyer Chong Joo Tian.
“And the other is that they are not allowed to use internet, smartphone and other devices that has internet access for the purpose of repeating the same offences, such as distributing materials, comments, statements that has religious or racial connotations..”
Since then both Vivian and Alvin has stayed out of the limelight. They only had a short reply towards questions from the media.
The case has sparked heated debate online and in the media with most people saying the couple should be punished for intentionally insulting Islam.
A date has not yet been set for the court to make the ultimate judgment.
