KUANTAN: Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim says he will defend freedom of speech but draws the line at slander.
The Prime Minister said he had no problem with the people making their own evaluations on issues being debated by politicians.
"Recently, there are accusations that I do not respect freedom of speech because an Opposition figure got charged in court.
"The Prime Minister gets scolded every day but did I take any action? No. Even if I do it, it is done through legal action," he said at a Temu Anwar session held at Kolej Kemahiran Tinggi Mara here on Tuesday (Aug 1).
Anwar said in that particular case, it was the Selangor Royal Council that lodged a police report.
"The Ruler is not a political figure. If I’m being attacked, I can respond but the Ruler can't.
"As the head of state, the Ruler is protected by the Constitution from political attacks and thus action was taken to charge the individual," he said.
Caretaker Kedah Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor was recently slapped with two counts of sedition over remarks that allegedly touched on Selangor Ruler Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah.
Anwar added that now it was the Sultan of Perak who was upset with certain individuals who used the Ruler's name to signify support for a political party.
"That's not freedom. This is an abuse of freedom...I want to stress that as long as I am Prime Minister, I will not allow divisive politics, especially to insult Rulers, because the principles of the Constitution must be defended," he said.
On the importance of social media in politics, Anwar said it certainly had its role but more importantly was training users to benefit from it.
He said a trove of information could be obtained from social media but it would be useless if users did not read into it.
"Is social media important? Yes. Critical? Yes, but use it to read more into a subject and not just to be mesmerised by one or two sentences.
"I was forwarded a TikTok post claiming that the country is heading towards destruction.
"Where's the destruction? Turns out TikTok is being used to carry out incitement," he said.
Anwar also said allocations for Opposition states had been increased contrary to claims on social media that these states were being sidelined.
