Being a liberal or a libertarian means believing in the rule of law, limited government, individual liberty and responsibility, and the free markets.

Institute for Demoracy and Economic Affairs (Ideas) CEO Wan Saiful Wan Jan said the word liberal has been abused to such an extent that its true meaning had been greatly distorted.

In America, the word has been stolen by those who generally believe in greater state intervention (e.g. Obamas Democratic Party).

In Malaysia, some have been trying to associate liberalism with Pakatan Rakyat, Wan Saiful said in a posting on his Facebook, noting that neither of these associations represent liberalism in its classical sense.

He said classical liberalism was usually used in Europe to describe a political philosophy that in the United States would be called libertarianism, with slight differences in its details.

In his posting, Wan Saiful elaborated on four areas which constitute basic libertarian principles rules of law; limited government; individual liberty and responsibility; and free markets.

A libertarians most basic belief could be traced back to the Abrahamic and Greek idea of a higher law, a law by which everyone, including the ruling elites, could be judged.

The advent of Islam strengthened this belief, and reinforced the idea that those in positions of power are not the ultimate source of authority, he said, stressing that authorities were also subjected to the law under a libertarian model.

When contacted, Wan Saiful told theantdaily his posting was originally written last November for a column published in an English daily but was reshared due to its relevance to the ongoing Christian Allah debacle.

The word liberal has been bandied about quite a lot lately (he wrote in November). Most of the time the term is criticised for something completely unrelated to what the word actually means.

Read more here:

Malaysians should use the word ‘liberal’ with caution and more accuracy