Malaysia 'bans' Peter Mayle’s book ‘where did I come
from’?
In
personal, I believed that this book with the title ‘Where did I come from’
written by Peter Mayle was originally aimed to develop a clear picture of sex
education to the younger generation and children who are concerned about sex
and teenagers that is going through the growth process that would like to learn
and absorb more knowledge about sex. Especially when parents are feeling
embarrassed or do not know the way to educate their children about sex. By
then, I assume this book could help teenagers and young adults to fulfill their
curiosity about sex. Additionally, I think the enforcement of sex education
should impose to the younger generation earlier in order to strengthen their
knowledge about sex up to a point that it may reduce the probability of early
pregnancy as well as child abortion.
According
to Coronel (2008), critics say that privately owned media, independent of the
state but slave to the market, are at best, episodic and unreliable watchdogs. However,
due to the indication of rules and regulations in Malaysia, the government
cannot provide publicity towards people who had written news or items that
reveals sensitive issues in the country. According to BBC News (2012), it is
stated that the reason Malaysia banned this book was due to it contained
elements that is harmful to public morals and will as well corrupt people’s
mind. In order to ensure that Malaysia will not have ‘Where did I come from’,
government had also reported that there is cooperation from every bookstore in
the country to immediately stop the sales of this book. Otherwise,
action will be taken towards anyone importing or selling it could face a
jail sentence or fine up to MYR 20,000.
In
Malaysia, the cultural context is based on the Islamic beliefs, which is
dissimilar from other countries among the world. Today in Malaysia, whichever issues
are connected to the revelation of immorality or sensitive issues are protected
from publishing in order to preserve the citizen’s rights. Therefore, Mayle’s content
of this book is considered offensive to the Malaysian law.
(346 words)
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