Don't we still need the Sedition Act 1948?

No turning back for Najib's plan for Sedition and IS Acts?

Killed a good few hours yesterday with DR, a young, up-and-coming Umno politician at Fast Bikes in PJ, where the knowledgeable motorcycling crowd congregates to talk cock and politics. DR is not a medical doctor, it's his initial; but like The Doctor this young man whose dad was a Minister in Dr M, Pak Lah and Najib's Cabinets has been known to ride fast and furious. He was most keen to know about the proposed amendments to the Sedition Act which I said I would share in the sequel to my posting  Do we still need the Sedition Act?. 

Why so interested? Ah, he said the Umno meetings in the run-up to the party's annual general assembly have made ISA and Sedition Act their main issues. "That's all the sayaps (wings) have been talking about." Which means that without doubt, the Prime Minsiter and Umno President's plan to amend (repeal?) the Sedition Act 1948 will take centrestage during the assembly next month. The plan might even face stiff challenge there. 

The ground swell against the said proposal to amend the Sedition Act has grown tremendously over the last few weeks to counter the movement that wants Najib Razak not to amend the Act but abolish it altogether. I say, "Cool". But I also bet most of these guys don't even know what the proposed amendments are. It's a combination of them not caring to know and the government apparatus that's supposed to inform the public about such things NOT doing their job properly. 

People need to be informed 

1. if the Act is going to be (a) amended (b) repealed 

2. if (a) what are the proposed amendments 

3. if (b) what is the substitute Act 

4. what (a) or (b) will do for us as a nation 

The little that the knowledgeable crowd at Fast Bikes know or think they know is:

1. The Sedition Act will be amended not abolished

2. The amendments are minimal, affecting "one or two matters only", according to someone who is close to the A-G Chamber

3. The A-G himself believes in the Sedition Act, which is why he has been charging people under that Act, although like I said in my previous posting his office should have been more circumspect with the Azmi-Loone duo

4. The proposed amendmends will provide room for criticisms against the government and the court of law and even its sometimes learned judges

5. Some politicians have been clamouring for the position of Islam as as the religion of the Federation, as stated in the Constitution, to be amended. Can't touch this. The AG, I hear, has proposed to amend the Akta Hasutan to give protection to the Constitutional provision of Islam as religion of the Federation. 

There you have it! But that's me saying it. The relevant authorities should be saying it. The Prime Minister should tell us about what he and the AG have up their sleeves. 

Even Sabahans think Sedition Act is still relevant

Personally, I'm sorry to say that I believe Malaysians are NOT ready to do away with the Sedition Act, just as they are not ready to deal with freedom of expression, the Press, etc. 

Those who say they are ready are usually the ones less so; when they find themselves at the receiving end of a liberal and free debate, they resort to suing you of a hundred million ringgit! 

Those among us who are most tolerant are also the most ciscumspect about the matter. A Sabahan Minister I met said while he believes that Sabahans are generally more tolerant and 1Malayaian than their fellow Malaysians from the other States, "I don't think even we Sabahans are ready for a no-holds-barred socio-political environment that will be created once there is no Sedition Act".  

"It will lead us to chaos," the Minister told us. 

Do we still need the Sedition Act 1948?

"Criticism is based on the truth; in a Sedition, the truth is not at all critical. " - Anonymous

The early history of Malaysian journalism is punctuated with the detention of journalists - real journalists - under the Internal Security Act. Arwah Pak Samad Ismail, for example, was accused of being a Communist by the same government that had sought his wisdom when Tun Abdul Razak was Prime Minister. As soon as Razak was gone, they took Pak Samad from his home in front of his wife and children and incarcerated him for 5 years. Pak Samad was released only after Dr Mahathir Mohamad replaced Hussein Onn as PM. No journalist was detained under the ISA during Dr M's tenure as Prime Minister, proof that you can have the ISA and use it judiciously. 

Under Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, however, the Home Minister from Johor committed the dumbest act by any Home Minister with the detention of a junior reporter for 24 hours under the ISA "for her own safety". Proof that the ISA, in the hands of some people, can be dangerous instead of beneficial to public health and peace, which was what the ISA was meant for. 

In the same vein, the perception of the Sedition Act today. The arrests of Malaysiakini journalist Susan Loone and pony-tailed Azmi Sharom, the lecturer with a column in the Star, must be viewed as acts aimed at deliberately undermining the position of the Sedition Act, which has helepd kept at bay the racists and the anarchists in some of us and maintained the peace that we enjoy. What could Ms Loone and Encik Azmi possibly have done to shake our foundations as a society? Apart from minor intellectural irritation, very little, I'd say. 

Dr Azmi Sharom

Susan Loone's blog

But what have their arrests achieved? Renewed hatred and greater suspicion towards the Sedition Act. And rightly so! Their arrests have convinced many people that the Act is draconian and serves the purpose of those in power. 

To propose DNA for Azmi & Loone?

So I am happy to hear (and read, h e r e) that the Attorney-General is reviewing those two cases with a view of amending the charges against the lecturer with a column and the journalist whom we bloggers used to call "loony". 

Tan Sri Gani Patail had gone this way before: he'd DNA-ed (discharged not amounting to acquittal) Raja Petra Kamaruddin and Syed Akbar Ali  after charging them with sedition during the Pak Lah era. Now those two, you'd agree with me, were rocking a lot of boats when they were fab - and they still are at the top of their games, if you want to compare them with Azmi-Loone.  

RPK: DNA-ed

Syed Akbar Ali: DNA-ed

But the AG, as the guardian of the Sedition Act, must act fast. The longer he waits, the more maligned the Act.

Most of us believe that criticisms against the Government must not be stopped; in fact, they should be encouraged. But people must also know the limits of freedom and the responsibility that comes with it. They cannot say or write whatever they bloody like.  

Like the ex-IGP Tan Sri Musa Hassan says in The Mole's Mala fide against the Sedition Act?, "If the Act is no longer here, people can do or say whatever they want under the sun".   

Will the Sedition Act be repealed? Are we ready for it? I am of the view that rules and regulations, laws and legislation ought to be amended now and then. It is about moving with the times ...

To be cont'd: Proposed amendments to the Sedition Act that you would agree to but have not been told about ...

Set up base in Putrajaya, Dr M tells non-Bumi firms

Shapadu boss Shafiz Sharani listens as Dr M launches
what will be the first corporate HQ in Putrajaya

Launching the first corporate headquarters on the Putrajaya boulevard that houses most of the government ministries this morning, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad this morning invited other Malaysian companies, including non-Bumi firms, to set up base there and help make Putrajaya a "truly Malaysian city".  

Shapadu Group became the first corporation to announce shifting its headquarters (currently in Shah Alam) to Putrajaya. It will build a RM700 million commercial haven just next to where the Ministry of Finance is.  

The former Prime Minister, who had conceived the idea of a Malaysian administrative capital in Putrajaya, said in his speech he had never thought he'd live to see Putrajaya reach where it is today. "I thought I would have been long dead. Allah has been kind to me."