GVF23: Puspal Shares The Blame, Says Lawyers For Liberty

LFL claims the ministry’s overreaction on what happened punishes innocent parties such as the organizer, workers, small businesses and the public.

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Malaysian human rights and law reform, Lawyers for Liberty (LFL) recently spoke out on the Good Vibes Festival 2023 cancellation.

In a statement yesterday, Director of Lawyers For Liberty, Zaid Malek said that the decision to entirely cancel GVF was arbitrary and an overreaction. The decision posed great consequences to local artistes and crew of GVF who depend on the festival for their livelihood.

It is reported that small businesses will suffer more than RM 50,000 in losses as a result of the cancellation. These are hard-working Malaysians trying to make a living.

Having hastily cancelled the event, will the government compensate these innocent parties?
Zaid Malek, Director of Lawyers For Liberty

Although they agree that 1975’s stunt was indeed insolent and unacceptable, he stated that the decision to ban them from Malaysia should’ve been enough. He also mentioned that the organizers cannot be entirely blamed for having a spontaneous mishap that happened on stage. They, in fact, did take immediate action after the incident by blacklisting the band instantly.

Besides that, he also claimed that if they wanted to point fingers, they should also pivot the blame to Puspal, an agency under the purview of the Communications and Digital Ministry of which Fahmi Fadzil is the minister, which was responsible to approve international acts. It is unfair to only blame Future Sound Asia (the organiser) who worked hard to bring this well-known yearly event to Malaysia.

Furthermore, he also wondered whether this decision was influenced by the upcoming state elections, in a bid to win the votes of the conservative community.

This raises the question whether the rush by the Govt to ban the entire event is related to the upcoming state elections, in hopes of garnering the votes of conservative voters.
Zaid Malek, Director of Lawyers For Liberty

He also said that the government should ensure that this incident doesn’t serve as a ticket for any parties to condemn and use violence against the LGBTQ community in Malaysia.

Previously, LFL has spoken up on many issues regarding LGBTQ rights, Malaysian statelessness issue, Rohingya’s defence and many more. They also helped Siti Nuramira and her partner to raise funds for their RM40,000 bail money after they were put in police custody after allegedly insulting Islam.

Fahmi Fadzil said it was a ‘lose-lose’ decision for him

As reported by The Star earlier today, Fahmi explained the rationale behind his decision. In a speech during an event at Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) yesterday (23 July), he said that it was impossible for him to satisfy everyone.

When I choose to cancel the event, I’m criticised. If I don’t choose to cancel the event, I will also be criticised.
Fahmi Fadzil, Communications and Digital Minister

He said that he was in a ‘lose-lose’ situation and knows that whatever decision he’ll take, it will eventually lead him to be criticized anyways.

He hoped the public would understand why he had to make the decision to cancel the entire festival.

For illustration purposes. Image: TRP File.

As long as I and other members of the unity government continue to work transparently and deliver the truth on the reasoning behind our actions, I believe the people will understand.

I know that the people of Selangor and the country as a whole are more than mature enough to understand what transpired and why I did what I did.
Fahmi Fadzil, Communications and Digital Minister

Besides that, regarding the issue of vendors’ financial loss, he also said that a government investment arm, MyCreatuve Ventures has been put on task to deal with the affected vendors.

They’ll announce what kind of support they can offer for both vendors and local artistes.

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