Putrajaya contradicts itself on Sedition Act
Hours after the prime minister re-affirmed his promise to abolish the Sedition Act, a member of his Cabinet insisted that Umno divisions all over the country want the government to retain the colonial-era law, Bernama reported.
Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim, a minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, also said the divisions want the Internal Security Act restored.
The Umno supreme council member claimed an internal survey found that 161 out of the 191 Umno divisions felt that way, and that this number was set to increase.
“We have made a survey of the Umno division heads nationwide and they want the Sedition Act retained and the ISA restored. This number is expected to increase,” Bernama reported him saying to reporters in Kota Baru yesterday.
Shahidan's remarks indicate the difficulty the prime minister may face in keeping his promise.
Datuk Seri Najib Razak had only yesterday affirmed, for the third time, that the Sedition Act would be abolished and replaced with the proposed national harmony laws.
Shahidan had first told The Malaysian Insider in a report yesterday that Najib had never promised to repeal the act but only to “review it”.
"The prime minister never promised to repeal it, he only pledged to review it. This means the Sedition Act may be replaced with the National Harmony Act but it might not be repealed," Shahidan had said.
Following Shahidan's statement, Najib announced at the opening of the Jerlun Umno divisional delegates meeting in Kedah yesterday that the Act would be abolished.
The prime minister had first made this pledge two years ago in a speech at a dinner for the Attorney-General’s Chambers, and repeated it last year in an interview with BBC World News programme on July 2, 2013. He had said that the government would “amend the act but we want to keep Malaysia peaceful and harmonious”.
Critics have been pressing the government to fulfil its promise, and have condemned the wide use of the Act against opposition politicians, and recently, a law professor, despite Najib’s announcements.
Bernama also reported Shahidan saying that the Umno divisions have suggested that the Sedition Act be amended to include stiffer penalties. – September 6, 2014.
