Najib’s close call over Sedition Act: Has the time-bomb in Umno been fully defused?

THE opposition within Umno to Datuk Seri Najib Razak's pledge to repeal the Sedition Act 1948 was a "time-bomb" that would have exploded at the party's general assembly last week had the prime minister not defused it in the nick of time.

This colonial legislation has been in the backburner and almost a non-issue for a long time until Najib, as part of his administration's raft of reforms and his zeal for moderation, pledged to abolish it in 2012.

It was in 2012 that he decided to repeal the Internal Security Act (ISA), arguably our most controversial law and which almost everyone loved to hate, particularly because it provided for detention without trial.

The abolition of the ISA as well as the Declaration of Emergency and all laws made under it was a bold act of political will and went down well with Malaysians because the consensus was that these laws were draconian or had outlived their purpose.

While the ISA was repealed, Najib wanted to replace the Sedition Act with laws on national unity and for this the National Unity Consultative Council was formed to work on a replacement legislation while doubts were raised if this would be like putting old wine in a new bottle.

In other words, if any law was to be abolished, why should a new law be enacted to replace it?

In the run-up to the Umno general assembly, it became clear that entire sections of the party that forms the linchpin of the ruling Barisan Nasional government, and notably, too, the Malay NGOs were opposed to Najib's plan to scrap the Sedition Act. And that there would be a showdown over this at the party's grandest event of the year.

Something significant happened on Nov 23, just four days before Najib's opening speech at the assembly. It's been a tradition that because all Umno presidents since independence have been prime ministers as well, this opening speech is the party president's most important of the year as it spells out the way forward for the country.

On that day, former Chief Justice Tun Abdul Hamid Mohamad said the proposed abolition of the Act was a mistake.

Speaking at a convention on national unity, Hamid reminded the nation that while the Act was put in place by the British to deal with opposition to the colonial rule, it also outlaws acts of instigating inter-racial hatred and disloyalty to the Malay rulers and for calling for change of the government by unlawful means, among others.

And he said that not everything in the Act came from the British.

Then came the clincher in Najib's "change of heart" over his previous adamant stand to proceed with repealing the Act. This was his intention as recent as Sept 5.

Hamid revealed that the most important amendment to the Act was made following the May 13, 1969 riots by the then prime minister Tun Abdul Razak, Najib's father.

He said Section 3 (1)(f) was added to prevent a recurrence of the May 13 tragedy. This amendment makes it an offence to question the rights of citizenship, the position of the Malay rulers, the status of Malay as the national language, and the allocation of special quotas and permits to the Malays and the people of Sabah and Sarawak.

"For me, the creation of this Section 3(1)(f) in the Sedition Act is ultimate success of Malay politics and of Tun Abdul Razak," he said.

In his speech at the assembly, Najib announced that the Act would be retained to the thunderous applause of delegates in some of the most rapturous scenes seen at Dewan Merdeka, Putra World Trade Centre.

"After listening to opinions and suggestions from the Umno leadership, party wing leaders, grassroots and non-governmental organisations, I have as the prime minister, come to a decision that the Sedition Act 1948 has to be retained," said Najib.

Najib announced it would be further strengthened with provisions to safeguard the sanctity of Islam and other religions and making it an offence to incite secession from Malaysia.

These amendments would be tabled at the next sitting of Parliament in March next year.

But the harshest criticism against Najib for trying to abolish the Act came not from his contemporary fellow party leaders or members but from former cabinet colleague and veteran journalist, Tan Sri Zainuddin Maidin, better known as Zam.

Writing in his blog, Zamkata.com, on the same day as Najib's announcement, Zam unleashed perhaps the most unpalatable words that a prime minister would ever hear from a former minister from the same party.

"If Datuk Najib is a smart politician, he would be able to understand that the thunderous applause of the delegates, who welcomed his announcement to maintain the Sedition Act, was actually Umno's rejection of his leadership that is liberal and weak.

"If he hadn't made that announcement, all Umno members would have buried him, and his future in Umno would have been destroyed," he wrote, adding that "a quiet revolution is growing."

It's all too obvious that after getting through the passage of scrapping the ISA without much hassle and rancour within Umno, Najib had thought that the Sedition Act would also be plain sailing.

He had forgotten the three "R's" at the heart of this Act – race, religion and royalty. The Malays and Islam are the DNA of Umno's struggle, apart from defending the position of the Malay rulers.

Perhaps Najib could find some solace in the defence put up by Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan, who said the public should be blamed for showing that they were not ready and therefore betraying Najib's "noble" intention to abolish the Act.

In a tweet, he said the public were "behaving like idiots" even before the Act was abolished, and instead of giving the PM the confidence that everything was okay even if the Act was repealed, they gave him nightmares instead.

"No prime minister worth his salt would repeal the Sedition Act after seeing how we could be capable of spewing hatred and venom at each other. So the PM acted rightly. He monitored, listened, evaluated. He didn't like what he saw.

"Don't blame him. Blame ourselves. No need to say flip-flop. It was us, Malaysians who screwed up a very big opportunity and we didn't live up to it," he wrote.

I let readers judge what Abdul Rahman, means but his views are contrary to the Umno psyche.

But all said and done, it has been a close call or even a baptism of fire for Najib. -Sundaily