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Malaysia set to replace controversial sedition law with trio of 'harmony' bills
ABC Radio Australia - June 11, 2014
Prime Minister Najib Razak pledged two years ago to repeal the catch-all sedition law, but it is still in effect and no timetable has been set for its abolition.
To replace the Act, several bills aimed at fostering national harmony are currently under consideration and the National Unity Consultative Council is considering the legal drafts.
Malaysian lawyer Chee Wee Lim sits on the Council and has told Radio Australia's Asia Pacific the bills will stand separately as three pieces of legislation.
"These three bills have been drafted by the working committee of the National Unity and Consultative Council," he said. "They are drafted with the objective of improving national unity, harmony and reconciliation."
The Sedition Act has been widely condemned in Malaysia because it creates a very low threshold for establishment of a criminal offence, where there is no requirement of intention or violence, whether threatened or actual. According to local media reports, 274 cases have been investigated under the colonial-era legislation since 2008.
Mr Lim says the new suite of bills gets rid of six criminal offences and replaces it with three others, regarding race, religion and ruler. But he says even under the proposed changes, the law could still be used selectively for political ends.
"Having a higher threshold of intention and violence would mean that it doesn't catch speech, which questions or validity of certain action of rulers or government or the judiciary," he said.
"But so far as discretion of the prosecutor goes, these laws do not circumscribe that discretion – that is vested in the Attorney-General in our federal Constitution... and the answer to that, is having the right person in the office."
Mr Lim says the National Unity Consultative Council is currently seeking public feedback on the proposed new legislation, including whether the concept of the three bills is acceptable and the details workable.
One area that is not up for debate is the position of Islam and the special position of indigenous Malays. Critics argue it is unrealistic to be talking of national harmony, when one race is placed legally over the others in Malaysia's multi-ethnic community.
But Mr Lim says the Malaysian constitution only talks of the 'special' position of Malays. "The fundamental principle is that no one race, religion is superior to another, and that is certainly the position under our federal constitution," he said.
Mr Lim says Malays do benefit from positive discrimination, as do other races in other jurisdictions, because of the social conditions of the past. "The question is, whether it should continue to exist, (but) that is another separate debate altogether," he said.
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