KJ denies reprimand, still wants 114A reviewed

After a long meeting with de facto law minister Nazri Abdul Aziz and attorney-general Abdul Gani Patail today, Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin still held his ground that Section 114A of the Evidence Act 1950 should be reviewed.

“I maintain my position in opposition to Section 114A,” Khairy told Malaysiakiniafter the one-and-a-half-hour meeting.

“I never said I changed my mind. I couldn't change theirs,” he also replied in Twitter to another user who claimed that the meeting had changed his mind.

However, the Rembau member of parliament denied that the cabinet has decided to reprimand him over his open objection to the controversial amendment.

“No reprimand at all so maybe your information is not entirely accurate or something happened today,” he said, referring to the cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak this morning.

Nazri tasked to explain

Government sources earlier told Malaysiakini that the cabinet had accepted a suggestion at its meeting chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin on Aug 15 to reprimand three key Barisan National (BN) leaders for openly going against the government's stance over the issue of Section 114A.

The other two are Deputy Higher Education Minister Saifuddin Abdullah and Deputy Youth and Sports Minister Gan Ping Sieu.

The meeting with Nazri and Abdul Gani today was for Khairy to explain his objections to the amendment.

During the meeting, Khairy said he presented his arguments and Abdul Gani, together with deputy solicitor-general II Tun Majid Tun Hamzah, responded.

“I was told that the cabinet has decided to hold firm and that Nazri is tasked with explaining to and engaging the public,” Khairy said when contacted.

Khairy, Saifuddin and Gan were among a small group of BN leaders to have expressed concern about Section 114A.

Following a successfulonline protestdubbed 'Internet Blackout Day' on Aug 14, Najibinstructed the cabinet to discuss the amendment in his absence, as he was abroad.

However, the cabinet meeting chaired the next day by Muhyiddin made a decision to stand its ground.

Under Section 114A, introduced as an amendment to the Evidence Act in April, any person or organisation whose name is carried together with any online publication is presumed to be the author of that content.

If the person or organisation is not the author, it is up to them to prove their innocence. The same applies to network owners whose Internet connectivity is used by others for "illegal" activities.

Nazri has argued that the law is not aimed at persecuting innocent people, but to protect the country from terrorism.