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Malaysian parliament debates strengthening controversial Sedition Act in first amendment in 40 years
ABC Radio Australia - April 9, 2015
The amendment to the Sedition Act, first tabled in parliament on Tuesday and the first revision in 40 years, sought to extend the maximum jail term to 20 years from the current three years and allow authorities to deny a suspect bail and seize their travel documents.
According to the amendment, it will no longer be illegal to insult the government, but speech inciting religious hatred in the Muslim-dominated but multi-faith country will be illegal.
"This is in line with the intention of the government to protect the sanctity of religions professed by the multi-religious society in Malaysia. An act of insulting and ridiculing any religion may cause disharmony and threaten public order," the amendment said.
Critics of the government, which has seen voter support slide, say it is increasingly falling back on "protecting Islam" in order to curb free speech by progressives and followers of other faiths in the religiously diverse opposition.
Sedition revisions tabled Tuesday also sought to ban speech promoting secession by any Malaysian state, a clause apparently aimed at growing complaints in the states of Sarawak and Sabah on Borneo island over domination by the central government.
Another revision embeds new methods to tackle alleged seditious content being distributed on social media, calling to "prohibit the person making or circulating the prohibited publication from accessing any electronic device" as punishment.
But in Thursday's debate, Malaysia's home ministry has reportedly further revised some of the proposed amendments, relaxing some penalties, removing a no-bail clause for certain offences, and according to Channel News Asia scrapping an illustration labelling calls for secession from Malaysia as seditious. "The government is listening," deputy home minister Wan Junaidi Wan Jaafar said.
Amid pressure for reform, prime minister Najib Razak had promised in 2012 to scrap the British colonial-era Sedition Act. But since a 2013 ruling-party election setback, authorities have charged dozens of people under the law, and Mr Najib himself reversed his position late last year, saying the act would be retained and fortified.
The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights notes that since the beginning of 2014 at least 78 people were investigated or charged under the Sedition Act, and in 2015 so far at least 36 individuals had been investigated or charged.
"We not only reject these amendments, we reject the Sedition Act in its entirety," Nurul Izzah, an MP and daughter of jailed opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, said in a statement. She called for the act to be repealed, saying the expression of opinions should not criminalised "on the whim of those who disagree".
Colonial-era law used to silence dissent
Ms Nurul herself was charged with sedition last month after reading out in parliament a statement by her father criticising his jailing in February.
Anwar Ibrahim was imprisoned for five years on a sodomy charge he said was fabricated by the government, as well as having a sedition charge levelled against him in 2014.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, on Thursday urged the government to withdraw the amendments to the act, warning it will breach Malaysia's Federal Constitution and its international human rights obligations.
"The UN Human Rights Office has long urged Malaysia to either repeal the 1948 Sedition Act or to bring it in line with international human rights standards," he said.
"The government had committed to repealing the act during its Universal Periodic Review at the UN Human Rights Council in 2013. It is very disappointing that the Malaysian government is now proposing to make a bad law worse."
In a Twitter posting on the sedition amendments, Eric Paulsen, head of Malaysian legal activist group Lawyers for Liberty, said "Soon we will see a situation similar to Egypt, where almost half of the opposition are behind bars facing politically motivated trials."
On Tuesday, the government-controlled parliament passed a tough anti-terrorism law aimed at countering Islamic militancy that allows authorities to hold suspects for lengthy periods without judicial review.
The law is being seen as another broken promise by the prime minister whose government in 2012 scrapped a much-feared security law allowing virtually indefinite detention, repeatedly used against government critics.
Amnesty International called the terrorism legislation "a shocking onslaught against human rights and the rule of law". (AFP/ABC)
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