Bar revives call for national harmony commission

 

The Malaysian Bar has reiterated calls for the establishment of the national harmony and reconciliation commission.

Speaking at a panel today, Bar president Karen Cheah said the government needed to establish the commission as well as pass the National Harmony Reconciliation Bill and Hate Crimes Bill to tackle the prevalent issue of hate speech.

“The Hate Crimes Bill actually lays out the provisions of what can actually amount to hate speech, the things that should be an offence, (and) the penalty of the person committing an offence under hate speech.

“The national harmony law is the one about policies that need to be followed or guidelines that need to be adhered to so the nation will know how to behave to coexist harmoniously together.

“And the third one is (establishing) a special commission (national harmony and reconciliation commission) where one can actually sit down and talk about policies that need to be set up,” she explained.

Cheah said that it was important for the commission to be set up to allow people from all walks of life to set concrete policies on hate speech.

Hate speech definition

She opined that the current legislative measures were not sufficient in curtailing hate speech, but rather curbed free speech.

The laws, she said, such as the Penal Code, Sedition Act 1948 and the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 did not properly define what hate speech is about.

Cheah labelled the provisions under the Sedition Act as “too vague, too wide, undefined and very draconian” and should only be applied as a last resort to curtail hate speech.

Meanwhile, Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act was “vaguely defined and ambiguous” which she believed “crossed the line” with free speech.

“In the past, the Sedition Act and other equally concerning laws have been employed extensively to counter the opposition and even the public for criticising the government.

“So given the historic abuse of laws that restrict the freedom of speech and continue misuse of such laws there should be a consideration on whether we need new laws to regulate hate speech,” she said.

The United Nations defined hate speech as any kind of communication in speech, writing or behaviour, that attacks or uses pejorative or discriminatory language with reference to a person or a group on the basis of who they are.

In other words, based on their religion, ethnicity, nationality, race, colour, descent, gender or other identity factors.

In August 2020, the Perikatan Nasional called off Pakatan Harapan's plans to establish a national harmony and reconciliation commission.

Then unity minister Halimah Mohamed Sadique said that the spirit of the bill to form the commission would instead be inserted into a national unity action plan.

The plan was launched the following year, albeit under former prime minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s administration, to restore the ideal of unity according to the Rukun Negara. - Mkini