issues of publication and design: Book publishing in Malaysia

Malaysia count as a very ‘open-minded’ country, not like other islamic countries they are very conservative about their religion, politics, language and so on. Malaysia has many local publisher, author and books somehow many of the books are import from overseas. Some of the books are being banned in Malaysia, because it contain sensitive issues. Religion issue still a major problem for malaysian, the government can’t accept books that can insult the islamic .

(Source : sabrinaaripen.blogspot.com )

The latest news that Malaysia government banned a book which write by Canadian Muslim writer Irshad Manji. Malaysia government banned her book because they belief that her book have the element that can deviate muslim from their faith. Banning book is nothing short of cowardly(Human Right Watch.org 2012). This is 21^st century, malaysian citizen has the right to know, they are capable discussing the issues of the day without government telling them what they can read and what they cannot read.

According to The Malaysian Insider (2012) which they report about Irshad news, banning the books would only draw much more attention. There is nothing humble about bannig ideas, but prohbit citizens from being expressed is a sure sign of insecurity. They have the right to free speech and expression. If they are strong enough for their faith of their religion. Why malaysian government afraid it will confuse the public?

The public, they are very clear what is happening now in the world.Not just the government ban the books, therefore they did not know about that. It even create their curiousity to know the content of the book, they can even online searching or buying from overseas publisher.Because of Malaysia is Islamic country, the religion issue is very sensitive to the government, protecting morality and banning the book is just old fashioned state repression.