Standing up for idiots, not just clever lawyers

By admin-s On Sep 19, 2014

(MMO) – Today, the Malaysian Bar will decide at its extraordinary general meeting (EGM) whether it will march against the Sedition Act.

A mass protest by Malaysia’s professional legal body will send strong signals to the powers-that-be that the Sedition Act 1948 must go, amid rather disturbing signs that the government seems to be having second thoughts about abolishing the colonial era law.

The uproar over the sedition dragnet grew more vociferous after well-known human rights lawyer and activist Edmund Bon announced last Friday that the police was investigating him under the Sedition Act for saying that non-Muslims are not bound by royal decrees or fatwa.

Bon is the first non-politician lawyer to be investigated for sedition in recent times.

Besides prosecuting opposition lawmakers, the government has also charged Universiti Malaya law professor Dr Azmi Sharom with sedition for his comments on the 2009 Perak constitutional crisis. His prosecution sparked a protest by students and lecturers.

In the state action against Bon and Azmi, people saw attacks on academic freedom and on lawyers’ duty to give legal opinions.

Former Malaysian Bar president Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan reportedly said the investigation against Bon shows that Malaysia has turned into a police state.File picture shows lawyer Edmund Bon. ― Picture by Siow Feng Saw

Sarawak Land Development Minister Tan Sri Dr James Masing reportedly said the results of the police probe against the lawyer would determine the direction of the country.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Idris Jala said Azmi should not have been charged with sedition as academic freedom is necessary in the pursuit of knowledge.

Yes, the action against Bon and Azmi merit concern. But what is of equal, if not greater, concern is the fact that a young man could be charged with sedition for insulting Muslims on Facebook, and jailed a year for it.

Chow Mun Fai, 37, was charged under the Sedition Act that imposes a maximum penalty of three years’ jail, as well as under the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 that provides for the maximum imprisonment term of one year.

The Facebook user did not plead guilty to the sedition charge, but he pleaded guilty to the alternative charge under Section 233 (1)(a) of the Communications and Multimedia Act for posting an offensive comment intending to hurt other people’s feelings.

This young man was sentenced to prison for one whole year just for making disparaging remarks about Ramadan and Prophet Muhammad, in which he used words like bak kut teh and syaitan (devil).

Lawyers for Liberty co-founder Eric Paulsen told me that it was highly unusual for the court to impose the highest prison sentence on Chow, as those who plead guilty customarily get one-third of the sentence if they claim trial. Plus, he was a first-time offender. Fines were a more common punishment for such offences.

The sedition charge against Chow is the second involving bak kut teh and insults against Muslims. Former sex bloggers Alvin Tan and Vivian Lee, aka Alvivi, were charged last year with sedition too for posting a mock Ramadan greeting on Facebook that invited Muslims to break fast with bak kut teh.

The authorities are very sensitive when it comes to bak kut teh, it seems.

Throwing insults and hurting other people’s feelings should not be a crime in a democracy like Malaysia, where freedom of expression is protected under the Federal Constitution.

This is the truly frightening part of the government crackdown – that the authorities can target ordinary people making noise on social media that would have been ignored anyway.