Tian Chua ordered to enter defence over ‘seditious’ speech

Batu MP Tian Chua today was ordered by the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court to enter his defence over a speech he made a week after the last general election.

Sessions Court judge Abdul Rashid Daud said the prosecution had successfully proven a prima facie case against Chua under Section 4(1)(b) of the Sedition Act.

What Chua had said in his speech in 2013 had seditious tendency, Rashid said.

Chua is therefore expected to give his sworn statement at the witness stand.

The trial continues on April 25 and 26.

Chua, together with activists Hishamuddin Rais and Adam Adli Abdul Halim, were charged with sedition over their speeches made at the Kuala Lumpur Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall on May 13, 2013.

Met by reporters later, Chua’s lawyer New Sin Yew stressed that whatever was said by his client was “not seditious" and was in fact said in “public interest”.

“There was nothing offensive or rude.

“Whatever Chua had said – ‘turun ke jalan raya, bangkit lawan rasuah’ - these are very generic words and are words that don't mean anything,” he said.

Pointing out how the words are used everyday, New added that construing them as seditious would create a very dangerous precedent.

“Everybody uses these words everyday. So where's the limit? It's a slippery slope that we are about to embark on,” he said.

Meanwhile, Chua said whatever happens to the case will not deter the opposition from continuing to fight, in Parliament as well as outside, for the abolishment of the Sedition Act.

“If we continue to allow the Sedition Act to be used in such a manner, Malaysia will lose its nature as a democratic society.

“This is more than just a trial; this is a battle to fight for civil liberties for all Malaysians,” he stressed. -Mkini