PM only ‘suggested’ Sedition Act repeal, says Subra

 

(The Malay Mail) – A “suggestion” was all that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak made when he “announced” plans to repeal the Sedition Act 1948 last year, Datuk Seri S. Subramaniam said today.

The health minister stressed that the Cabinet has yet to decide whether to abolish the colonial-era law that critics have denounced as a tool to silence political opponents and dissent.

“The prime minister (picture) has the right to make a suggestion,” Subramaniam told reporters at the Parliament House here today.

“He has to bring it back to Cabinet,” he added.

In July last year, the prime minister announced that the Sedition Act will be repealed but added that this would only be done once a replacement law — a National Harmony Act — is introduced in its place.

Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said yesterday, however, that Putrajaya was merely looking at amending the Sedition Act, instead of abolishing it.

But Tourism and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Aziz separately said the exact opposite yesterday, insisting that the federal government is committed to repealing the Sedition Act.

Najib told British broadcaster BBC in London on July 2 that the law was only applied on individuals who were undermining Malaysia’s security, saying: “We will amend the Act but we want to keep Malaysia peaceful and harmonious.”

Subramaniam said today that whether the Sedition Act is amended or replaced with another law, freedom of speech needed to be balanced with maintaining national security.

“We have to give enough space for people to freely express their opinions,” said the MIC deputy president. “That will be maintained together with ensuring national security.”

In October, Nazri, who was then the de facto law minister, said the proposed National Harmony Act will keep the main elements of the Sedition Act, but will have the additional element of allowing for criticism of the government. He added it would happen this year.

But the authorities’ decision to charge PKR’s Tian Chua along with activists Haris Ibrahim, Adam Adli and Safwan Anang last month with the Act has renewed questions over the government’s sincerity to do away with the controversial law.

Opposition lawmakers argue that prosecution under the Sedition Act should not be pursued given Najib’s announcement.

Lembah Pantai MP Nurul Izzah Anwar has filed a Private Member’s Bill in Parliament in a bid to hasten the abolition of the law.

Ahmad Zahid stressed yesterday that the Sedition Act is necessary to ensure that nobody can question the four issues embedded in the Federal Constitution — on the position of Islam as the official religion, Malay as the national language, special rights of the Bumiputeras, and the position of the Malay kings.

Ahmad Zahid has been seen as a strong advocate of preventive detention laws, which the Najib administration has slowly begun to remove as part of its reform measures.

Najib was seen to initiate a raft of legal reforms after taking office in April 2009, introducing a law that allowed peaceful assemblies in public and abolishing the Internal Security Act (ISA) and Emergency Ordinance (EO), both which allowed for detentions without trial.