Beyond Ridiculous!

I have just gotten very disturbing news.

As you all know, our Home Ministry has decided to ban certain books depending on whatever they deem should or should not be censored. First of all, I believe in freedom of choice, and I don't believe in censorship whatsoever. For goodness sake, we are not children who don't know the difference between right or wrong, we are adults with *brains*! And moreover, we are people who *read*, obviously. So whatever we choose to read, we can decide for ourselves the extent to which the book effect us!

The act of censorship itself, especially in books, suggest that we Malaysians are stupid children who don't know better, who need others to think for us, who need the Home Ministry to spoon-feed us. And the worst thing is, the people who are supposedly appointing themselves our 'personal thinkers' don't really think all that well.

You know why I say that?

Ok, assuming that I'm alright with the act of banning books itself, assuming that I believe that there are certain books that should be banned... They should be banned based on their content and not the titles!!! For goodness sake!! What the hell is wrong with giving your book an interesting and eye-catching title? It's just a title! Should we now fine everybody who has the misfortune to be named Dick or whatever other dubious name? Just because the guy's name is Dick doesn't mean that he's a dick!

Ok, let's assume further that it's ok to ban books based on their titles, let me ask you, what titles do you think should be banned? The Vagina Monologues? Maybe. A book with something vulgar on the title, well, I could probably understand that. But banning a book because it has the word Kiss on the title? This is beyond ridiculous!

But this was exactly what they did! They confiscated a book because of the word Kiss in the title!

Sighz... Everytime I think that Malaysia is making progress, some people just have to prove me wrong and show me that we're going backwards. Please, I love Malaysia, and I love it here, but everytime I see something like this, I just feel... disappointed. Honestly. *shakes head sadly*

I am against censorship and bookbanning, and I believe in freedom of choice! Free the books! Don't let them ban those books! Let us choose what we should and shouldn't read! Let us build our knowledge and our minds without interference! Support the Freedom of Books! FreeTheBooks.blogspot.com!