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NGOs call for Sedition Act repeal ahead of Anwar's date with police tomorrow
KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 25, 2014:
Non-governmental human rights organisations Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and its member organisation in Malaysia Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram) today called on the government to repeal the Sedition Act 1948 and cease cracking down on the freedom of expression.
The statement referred to a Sept 23 announcement by the police that opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim would be questioned on Sept 26 as part of a sedition investigation stemming from a speech he made during a political rally in Gombak on March 25, 2011.
FIDH and Suaram claimed that Anwar was the latest victim of a government-backed campaign that had targeted opposition politicians and government critics.
It pointed out that since May last year, 19 people, including five Members of Parliament, activists and an academic, had been charged and at least 28 more people, including a journalist, three lawyers and two MPs, had been investigated under the Sedition Act.
“The Sedition Law is a relic of the past which has no place in modern Malaysia.
“It clearly falls short of international standards on freedom of expression and must be urgently repealed.
“The Sedition law’s overly broad scope and outdated provisions have become an effective tool to silence legitimate voices of dissent,” said FIDH president Karim Lahidji.
They said the Act criminalized any speech or publication that had a “seditious tendency” and which was defined by the act as anything which caused “hatred or contempt” or disaffection against the government, incited the “alteration, otherwise than by lawful means, of any matter as by law established” or promoted “feelings of ill will and hostility between different races”.
“Just as the British used the Sedition Law to quell opposition against their colonial rule, the current administration uses that law to target its opponents.
“It is very troubling to see that the government continues to hold the civil liberties of the Malaysian people hostage to a law enacted over 60 years ago when the United Kingdom abolished the offences of sedition and seditious libel in 2010,” said Suaram executive director Yap Swee Seng.
The statement also pointed out that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had stated that the Act would be repealed every year for the past three years.
Najib, on July 11, 2012, stated it would be repealed as part of planned legislative reforms, adding on July 2, 2013, that it would be replaced by a new National Harmony Act and reiterated his commitment for repeal on Sept 5, 2014.
“However, his pledges remain unfulfilled and the number of prosecutions for sedition has increased sharply in recent times.
“Over the past month alone, seven people have been charged under the Sedition Law,” read the statement by FIDH and Suaram.
