Nurul’s bill to remove Sedition Act rejected

Abolishing the Sedition Act would threaten the position of the Malay Rulers, the Parliament Speaker says, despite Najib Tun Razak’s pledge to have the act repealed.

KUALA LUMPUR: The Private Member’s Bill Nurul Izzah Anwar filed to bring an end to the Sedition Act 1948 has been rejected by the Speaker on the grounds that the act’s abolishment would threaten the position of the Malay Rulers.

The Parliament Speaker, in a letter to Nurul yesterday, said that abolishing the Sedition Act would also mean abolishing its subsections, which touched upon the position of the Kings.

“…abolishing [this act] especially subsection 3(1)(f) will result in the act of questioning the special position of the Malay Rulers no longer becoming seditious,” the letter, signed by Pandikar Amin, reads.

“I also understand that Act 38(4) of the Federal Constitution states that no law that touches upon the position of the Malay Rulers can be approved without agreement from the Conference of Rulers.”

This has prompted Nurul to question whether Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak was aware of this clause when he announced last year that the government would replace the controversial act with the National Harmony Act.

“Does this mean that Najib is unaware of the procedure and mechanisms related to any Act before it is repealed?” the PKR vice-president asked at a press conference in the Parliament lobby today.

“Why didn’t he realize there were such requirements before making a public announcement to Malaysians on July 2012 that he would abolish the Sedition Act?” she said.

The government has received widespread flak for wielding the Act primarily on Opposition Leaders and activists critical of Barisan Nasional as recently as May this year.

Give us a copy

Speaking at the same press conference, Batu MP Tian Chua, who has been made a “victim” of the Act, said it was obvious that the Prime Minister had not done his research before announcing the repeal.

Meanwhile, Nurul urged the government to provide all parliamentarians with a draft of the Act, given the contradictory statements issued by the Prime Minister and Cabinet Ministers on the matter.

Najib had reaffirmed yesterday his year-old pledge that the Act would be replaced with the National Harmony Act, but Home Minister Zahid Hamidi has consistently voiced out his reservations on the matter.

Ahmad Zahid had told reporters earlier this month he wanted the Act retained so that the special rights of Malays, the status of Malay rulers, the status of Islam as the Federal religion and the status of Bahasa Melayu as the national language were not questioned.

“I will not compromise if there are parties who want to touch on any of these four main aspects of the Constitution.

“Those who do, must be charged under the existing Sedition Act 1964,” Ahmad Zahidi had said on July 9.

Nurul said today: “In the end, we are all talking about an act whose contents no one even knows for sure of. How can we have engagement over the issue when even the MPs don’t have a copy of the Act?

“The next Parliament session is in September, so the government has no excuse to not provide a copy of the rakyat to all the MPs,” she stressed.