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Thursday, July 18, 2013

Sedition Act: Who’s the real enemy?

The Home Minister's open defiance of Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak speaks volumes about his lack of concern for the voice of the majority
COMMENT
The country’s leaders gleefully gloat that Malaysia is a moderate Muslim nation. They boast over and over again that all is well back and that national unity is very much alive and kicking.
Is this is really the case, going by how some veteran politicians who hold ministerial positions seem to be callously abusing the accountability and trust placed in them by the rakyat by pursuing the Malay agenda.
Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi is a case in point. Despite the assurance given by Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak that the Sedition Act 1948 would be done away with, Zahid wants to do otherwise – he wants the Act to stay, all because he is worried that the issue of Malay rights and privileges might end up being abused.
On July 11 last year, Najib gave his word that the Sedition Act would be repealed and replaced with the National Harmony Act.
The Sedition Act  is a law prohibiting discourses deemed seditious. It criminalises speech with “seditious tendency”, including that which would bring into hatred or contempt or to excite disaffection against the government or engender feelings of ill-will and hostility among different races.
Now there is a situation where Najib’s ‘downliners’ like Zahid are unwilling to cooperate and want, against all odds, to pursue the Malay agenda, never mind the consequences.
All talk about abolishing the Sedition Act might have given Zahid insomnia, his insecurity stemming from the fact that his rights as Malay first might come under threat.
The Home Minister’s open defiance against the abrogation of the Sedition Act speaks volumes about his lack concern for the voice of the majority.
Zahid’s claim that abolishing the Sedition Act might lead to the four entrenched positions in the Federal Constitution (i.e.  Malay rights, sovereignty of Malay rulers, Malay as national language and Islam as the official religion of the federation) being abused does not hold water.
“I will not compromise if these four are touched. The repeal of the law would open these entrenched articles in the constitution to debate and abuse. That’s why the Sedition Act is so important,” Zahid said in a press conference on July 7.

Why bother with the National Harmony Act?
While Zahid stubbornly defends the validity of the Sedition Act, Attorney-General Gani Patail says the National Harmony Act is in the ‘middle stage’ of study.
Is the AG aware that the Home Minister has made ‘save the Sedition Act’ his personal mission? If Zahid insists that the Sedition Act remains, why bother with the National Harmony Act?
Would the National Harmony Act be the ‘coming of age’ of the Barisan Nasional-led government to ensure Malaysia’s precious ‘unity in diversity’ comes under no threat?
Or is the  Act a gimmick to bluff the rakyat that the federal government is truly concerned about the attack on Malaysia’s unity?
Does Zahid have certain ‘backing’, enabling him to overide Najib’s decision to get rid of the Sedition Act?
Clearly, having a seasoned but insensitive politician like Zahid in the Cabinet is a danger to the well being of Malaysians, their race and faiths irrespective.
One wonders what Najib has to say when recalcitrants like Zahid take it upon themselves to call the shots?
Sedition Act to keep Malay agenda alive?
Be it subtly or otherwise, Zahid has through his unceremonious actions sent out the message that Malaysia is first and foremost home to the Malays.
In other words, the Home Minister does not care what happens to the non-Malays of this country, never mind that the latter having for a long time been made to suffocate under the guise of preserving Malay rights.
Najib’s Cabinet obviously needs a ‘reshuffling’, going by the ‘characters’ and hidden agendas of his ministers. The rakyat is bewildered as to how revoking the inhumane Sedition Act will rock the boat as far as the Malay rights are concerned?
Is Zahid using ‘Malay rights’ as an excuse to fulfill a malicious agenda?
Has the situation in the country turned so critical that a politician can dictate terms to the rakyat and can shamelessly proceed to divide and rule the people?
While Zahid continues to defend the Malay agenda, his much matured and discerning colleagues like Lembah Pantai MP Nurul Izzah Anwar are going all out to fight for the annulment of the Sedtion Act.
Nurul wants the Sedition Act to go because she finds it had been used or rather misused  liberally against the opposition and not against those who spoke and continue to speak in favour of the BN administration.
The PKR vice-president said no action was taken against former Court of Appeal judge Mohd Noor Abdullah, former Perkasa chief Ibrahim Ali and Utusan Malaysia, all of whom take great delight in inciting the Malays against the non-Malays.
Nurul had earlier in the month filed a private members bill calling for the abolition of the Sedition Act. The bill was prompted by the detention of several opposition figures and a student activist by the police following their statements on several issues.
She cited the detention of activist Haris Ibrahim, PKR vice-president Tian Chua, PAS member Tamrin Ghafar, student activist Adam Adli and PAS vice-president Husam Musa, all of whom were investigated under the Sedition Act, as selective prosecution and a classic case of how the Act was being used for the wrong reasons.
Nurul has made her point clear. Zahid, however, is struggling to pursue the Malay agenda. In the meantime, as always, all is quiet with the nation’s leader, Najib Tun Razak.
Jeswan Kaur is a freelance writer and a FMT columnist

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