Opinion: Why Saifuddin is not fit to be Home Minister
The amendment is going to raise hackles among many PKR, DAP, Sarawakian and Sabah MPs but might find some support from Pas and Bersatu, who Saifuddin seems to be rather eager to please. Why go for such changes which are going to divide PKR and weaken it further.
P Gunasegaram, Newswav
Sometime this month in Parliament Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail is going to present constitutional amendments to misguidedly make it tougher – much tougher – for poor, underprivileged stateless people to become citizens.
Our government leaders talk about oppression in other countries but consistently fail to look in our own backyards. The proposed new amendments make it very difficult for the stateless to find a home and potentially could involve hundreds of thousands of people.
So far he has done nothing about other major amendments proposed for decades by PKR, the not-so-dominant dominant party in the ruling unity government, of which he is incidentally a member, and which has been in PKR’s manifesto for several elections.
These would have rolled back draconian provisions in the law which have been used in the past to detain opposition leaders, jail and oppress politicians and leaders of non-governmental organisations, and stop free and fair discussion.
They include changes to or repeal of the Printing Presses and Publications Act (PPPA) which gives draconian powers to the government to shudown newspapers at any time and provisions in the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Act which allow sites to be blocked and/or shut down.
Others include the draconian ISA replacement, the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act or Sosma, the Sedition Act, the Official Secrets Act and a multitude of archaic and oppressive provisions under the Penal Code.
It definitely looks like Umno rules the roost, not PKR. Saifuddin is not helping. Confoundingly, he says the PPPA will not be amended and talks about strengthening Sosma instead!. That’s an old Umno refrain.
