KUALA LUMPUR: Freedom in Malaysia took a dip in 2014 due to Putrajaya’s use of the Sedition Act to silence dissent, a report by the US-based Freedom House said.

Malaysia was also ranked as “partly free” in the annual Freedom in the World global report, the 2015 edition of which is titled “Discarding Democracy: Return to the Iron Fist”

The report also noted the government’s persecution of minority groups such as Shi’ite Muslims and transgenders.

“Malaysia received a downward trend arrow due to the government’s use of the Sedition Act to intimidate political opponents, an increase in arrests and harassment of Shi’ite Muslims and transgender Malaysians, and more extensive use of defamation laws to silence independent or critical voices,” said the report, which was posted online.

On a ranking of one to seven, with the smaller numbers representing greater degrees of freedom, Malaysia was given four points and in comparison, Indonesia got three and was also ranked “partly free”. Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos were ranked “not free”.

The annual report focuses on political and civil liberties and its scores are based on answers to questions derived largely from the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights. — The Malaysian Insider

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on January 30, 2015.