NETIZENS are fuming over the waste of time, human resources and above all else – taxpayers’ money – to please an unjust narrative after the Kuala Lumpur High Court ordered the Home Ministry to return 172 of Swatch’s Pride timepieces to the Swiss watchmaker within 14 days from yesterday (Nov 25).
This followed a ruling by judge Amarjeet Singh who had allowed Swatch Group (M) Sdn Bhd’s judicial review for the return of its watches in various rainbow shades which is reflective of the LGBTQ+ community.
The civil court judge further ruled the seizure was illegal as it was done before the prohibition over the items was gazetted.
Recall that the Home Ministry had seized the watches in a series of nationwide raids between May 13 and 15 last year.
On Aug 10 last year, the government went a step further to gazette a ban on any Swatch watches or related material – including boxes – containing LGBTQ+ influences under Section 7 of the Printing Presses and Publications Act (PPPA) 1984.
The KL High Court has ordered the Home Ministry to return 172 of Swatch’s Pride watches within 14 days from today.
The judge rules that the seizure by the Malaysian government last year was illegal, as it was conducted before the prohibition of the items was gazetted.
🧵1 https://t.co/Exqu4qaN3b pic.twitter.com/MGGrKJsatW
— BFM News (@NewsBFM) November 25, 2024
Stating that government and officials were “acting ultra vires the law” at the outset, several netizens had mooted that severe penalties must be meted out on the ministry concerned and its officials.
In fact, one netizen deemed as insufficient for the Home Ministry to merely return the watches back to its rightful owners but “they should be forced to apologise publicly and kowtow outside”.
Some more aggressive commenters even called on swatch “to sue kaw2” both the Madani government and Home Ministry for loss of biz and defamation.
Few commenters berated the Madani-style action of taking drastic action first without considering the consequences – more so to pander to the right to please certain quarters, all of which go against the desire of those who voted for the reformist Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition.
As one commenter sensibly argued, it would have been understandable if the raid had had happened during the previous Perikatan Nasional (PN) administration. He went on to lament how come “component members (of the unity government) did not object to this face-losing action by one of their colleagues”.
At the end of the day, surely what had been done cannot be undone with one commenter cheekily “betted that the confiscated watches have gone missing”.
On this note, KL High Court judge Amarjeet said while the court would not make any order for damages, Swatch is at liberty to file a separate bid for that.
This is because every time the authorities conduct a raid and seizure, the seized items tend to get damaged, he added. – Nov 26, 2024
