KUALA LUMPUR, July 15 — Datuk Seri Panglima Dr Jeffrey G. Kitingan, MP for Keningau, today expressed support for the Communications and Multimedia (Amendment) Bill 2026 while cautioning that new government powers must be accompanied by robust checks and balances to prevent misuse.
While acknowledging the amendments are necessary to counter cybercrime and rapid advances in artificial intelligence, he said Parliament bears a significant responsibility to ensure those powers are not abused.
“History proves that many countries did not lose their freedoms suddenly. They lost them bit by bit, through laws originally drafted with good intentions,” he said during debate in the Dewan Rakyat.
He emphasised that today’s threats extend far beyond fake news, with AI capable of generating videos that were never recorded, cloning voices with near-perfect accuracy, stealing identities, manipulating elections, and extorting children using computer-generated images.
“Today’s criminals no longer need a gun. They only need a laptop and an internet connection,” he said.
Kitingan also posed several questions to the Communications Minister regarding mechanisms to ensure MCMC keeps regulatory standards for AI up to date.
He asked whether there is an independent expert panel in AI, cybersecurity, digital rights and technology ethics, and whether an annual report on AI abuse would be tabled in Parliament.
“Without such mechanisms, we may pass laws that are already obsolete before the ink is even dry,” he said.
The Keningau MP also addressed concerns over freedom, stating that most Malaysians do not fear the law itself, but rather its abuse.
“We must give the government power to fight scammers. But do not let that power create the perception that the people’s voices can also be silenced,” he said.
He reminded the House that governments change but laws remain, therefore legislation passed today must be fair enough to be used by any future administration.
“This is the true measure of a mature democracy,” he said.
Speaking from a Sabah perspective, Dr Kitingan stressed that digital transformation is not merely about smartphone applications but about fairness in development.
He noted that villages in Sabah still lack quality internet access, with students searching for signals on hilltops or in trees, and rural entrepreneurs unable to compete due to weak digital infrastructure.
“How can we talk about AI when some of our people are still struggling to get a stable internet connection?” he asked.
He warned that the digital divide would ultimately become an economic divide, then a social divide, and finally a political divide.
“This is what we must avoid,” he said.
Kitingan concluded by stating that the nation’s future will not be determined by the sophistication of AI alone, but by the human wisdom that controls it.
“Laws can create a fearful society, but good laws will create a confident society. Laws can silence the people, but wise laws will protect the people’s rights while punishing criminals,” he said.
He expressed hope that when history judges this Parliament, it would say: “They not only succeeded in controlling technology, but they also succeeded in defending the people’s freedoms.”
The Communications and Multimedia (Amendment) Bill 2026 was passed by the Dewan Rakyat today by a majority vote after debate from 14 MPs from both government and opposition blocs.
