Political graphic designer, Street artist and Documentary filmmaker Mohd Fahmi Reza Bin Mohd Zarin, or Fahmi Reza, was charged at the Sessions Court on Thursday (10 February) for insulting former health minister Dr Adham Baba on Twitter.
Fahmi was charged under Section 233(1)(a) of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998, with the prosecution contending that he uploaded the post on 10 February 2021 intending to annoy others.
The tweet in question referred to the 2021 Cabinet policy that allowed ministers to observe a 3-day quarantine, instead of 10 days after they returned from overseas.
The policy was made when Adham was the health minister during his tenure from March 2020 to August 2021.
Fahmi faces a fine of up to RM50,000 or up to one-year imprisonment or both and can be fined RM1,000 for each day the offence is continued after conviction.
Later that night, Fahmi took to his social media accounts to ‘apologise’ for his controversial poster, which he said had hurt the feelings of many.
“After being subjected to the charge in court this morning because of this posting, I repent and have made the decision to write a public apology, hoping that the party involved in this posting will forgive me for my wrongdoing in making an irresponsible comparison.” he wrote.
“Therefore, I, Fahmi Reza, as the individual responsible for this posting and this graphic art, humbly ask for a thousand apologies to all pigs in and out of Malaysia because I equated and linked you to useless ministers who are still in power in our country,”
“Good comes from God. The bad from the ministers,” he added.
Yes !!! When I started reading I thought, "WTF, why apologizing…" then it made sense…
— NavinKrish (@thepetezahat) February 10, 2022
Meanwhile, his post received over 10,000 likes at the time of writing, with some readers commenting that Fahmi had gotten them “in the first half”.
Nonetheless, the graphic artist had vowed that he will continue defending his satirical postings.
“No matter how many times I have been called up by police, investigated by them, arrested by them, and even hauled to court, it will not stop me from producing my artworks, because I feel this is a form of freedom and a means for us citizens to voice and express ourselves.”
“I will keep on fighting, whatever the case may be, especially if it is attempting to stifle our liberty. I will continue to fight for my rights, and I will continue to defend my satire artworks, because satire is not a crime,” he said.
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