The London-based freedom of expression campaign group Article 19 has called for the repeal of the Malaysian Sedition Act, stating that the controversial law cannot be justified.

"It is excessively vague, serves no legitimate aim sanctioned by international law and it cannot be justified as necessary in a democratic society, in particular because of its over-breadth and the serious chilling effect it has on open, democratic debate," said the group in an analysis of the law which was released last Friday.

Loosely defined

In its analysis, Article 19 noted that the law demonstrated a number of serious problems which failed all the international tests for freedom of expression.

"The definition of the crime of sedition is very vague and both 'sedition' and 'seditious tendency' are loosely defined," it added.

The group said that the law also does not pursue a legitimate aim because both its purpose and its effect go far beyond protecting public order and security.

"The provisions are seriously over-broad, criminalising a range of perfectly legitimate political speech and it breaches the fundamental principle that no one should be convicted of a criminal offence in the absence of a mental element or 'intention'," it added.

Article 19 said that despite these serious shortcomings, the government had been widely using the law to detain and repress opposition figures, activists and critical media.

It gave examples of recent cases which include the Jan 20, 2003 raid on online newspaper malaysiakini, and the charges preferred against lawyer Karpal Singh, lead counsel for Anwar Ibrahim, for comments made in court in connection with the case.

Other cases involved the conviction of Harakah editor Zulkifli Sulong and the jailing of opposition parliamentarian Lim Guan Eng in 1998 for statements made accusing the attorney-general of mishandling allegations that the chief minister of Malacca was guilty of statutory rape of a schoolgirl.

The analysis was produced as a part of the regional project "Promoting and Protecting Freedom of Expression and Freedom of Information in the Asean Region".

Elaborating on the problems beseeching the Act, Article 19 said both the term 'sedition' and 'seditious tendency' are loosely defined and subjective words such as 'hatred', 'contempt', 'discontent', 'feelings of ill-will' and 'disaffection' are used without any definition in the Act.

"Vague provisions are susceptible of wide interpretation, by both authorities and those subject to the law. As a result, they are an invitation to abuse and authorities may seek to apply them in situations which bear no relation to the original purpose of the law or to the legitimate aim sought to be achieved.

"Unfortunately, in Malaysia, the state organs have taken advantage of the vagueness of the law as a means of silencing their critics."

"Indeed, the authorities have practically given a new meaning to sedition, wielding this law to quash opposing and/or critical opinions."

'Chilling effect'

It added that the vague provisions also failed to provide sufficient notice of exactly what conduct was prohibited.

This often resulted in these provisions exerting an unacceptable 'chilling effect' on freedom of expression as "citizens steer well clear of the potential zone of application to avoid censure".

Article 19 also said the most serious defect of sedition laws is that they represent a disproportionately serious interference with democratic debate.

It said that the flood of prosecutions under the law of sedition shows that the authorities actually use this law in a targetted way to "chill" criticism of the government.

This highlights a fundamental shortcoming of the law and leads to it have a disproportionate chilling effect on democratic debate.

Article 19's findings on the Sedition Act mirrors what has been said before by local opposition parties and non governmental organisations.

The Sedition Act, first enacted in 1948, was amended following the 1969 racial riots to prohibit any discussion of citizenship rights, Malay special rights, status and power of Malay rulers, status of Islam and Bahasa Melayu as the official religion and language respectively.

Since the 1980s, less than 10 cases of sedition were taken to court.

Among those charged were former Bar Council vice-chairperson Param Cumaraswamy and former Keadilan vice-president Marina Yusof.

Malaysiakini editor-in-chief Steven Gan is currently being investigated for publishing a letter said to be seditious.