MP SPEAKS The tyranny of the BN government knows no bounds. The prosecution of Seputeh MP Teresa Kok under the Sedition Act is an ironclad proof of this tyranny.

Having promised the nation two years ago that he would replace the Sedition Act with a National Harmony Act, Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, as usual, has reneged on his promise.

The dream of Malaysians to see the abolition of this draconian law will, unfortunately, remain a dream - at least for another four years. Thanks to Najib's distorted version of transformation!

Without any sense of guilt, Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi proudly told the nation last year that the Sedition Act will stay, come what may. Only a few amendments would be made to it.

What are his reasons? Simple. The BN government had abolished the Emergency Ordinance (EO) and the Internal Security Act (ISA) - two obnoxious laws allowing detention without trial. Therefore, it would be dangerous if the government were to issue a death warrant to the Sedition Act as well.

Zahid’s statements disclose a myriad of things. First, he unhesitatingly shows the true colours of the BN. To win the last general election, the BN needed to convince the people that Najib was very committed to political transformation. Thus the idea of abolishing the Sedition Act.

However, after the people gave BN a fresh mandate to rule the country, albeit done allegedly through electoral fraud, the said pre-election promise was yet again put on the backburner. After all, this is not the first time BN has made empty promises. What is next is yet to be known.

The Sedition Act is colonial baggage. The British introduced this law in order to justify the arrest of those whom they labelled as insurgents or terrorists. To arrest these so-called insurgents, the colonial power needed some justification, or some legal dressing.

The simplest justification was by accusing these groups of raising hatred against the British. The British knew it was not easy to prove seditious remarks, thus the law made it clear that even if one merely says something that carries “elements” of a seditious tendency, that is sufficient to establish a punishable offence for sedition.

Even the MPs today are not spared this obnoxious legislation. The law does no recognise the immunity of Parliament or its members.

Law aims to instil fear

But Zahid doesn't care about all these cruelties, does he? To remain in power, the BN must drive home this powerful message to its political rivals: your freedom is at our mercy, the BN.

The BN needs to flex its muscles in order to instil fear among its political opponents and the Sedition Act is one of its best legal instruments for doing so. BN was never serious when it proposed to abolish this law - the promise was just another of the “goodies” of the last general election.

After all, the long arm of this law will never reach people like Perkasa president Ibrahim Ali and the like. When it comes to making seditious remarks, Perkasa is really "perkasa", in the sense that its leaders are immune. They can express any seditious remark with impunity. The Sedition Act treats the Perkasa leader as its noble friend.

Now, with Isma leader Abdullah Zaik Abdul Rahman apparently joining the bandwagon, he too becomes immune to this evil law.

Only those who are under Pakatan Rakyat or critical of the BN will be arrested and prosecuted under this law. Don't talk about selective prosecution in the implementation of this law - this is irrelevant, as far as BN is concerned.

In jurisprudence, law is either a power restraining or power conferring instrument. The people will be relatively safer if the law is treated as a power restraining tool. Once a law is treated as a power conferring instrument, it will give the BN a blank cheque to do anything to silence its political enemies.

It was a really a joke when Zahid said that without the Sedition Act, the people would be incited to make racial slurs.

Zahid, let’s be honest. Is it without the Sedition Act, or without Utusan Malaysia and Perkasa or Isma, that our racial harmony will be safer? Utusan, Perkasa and Isma seem to be the main contributors to racial disintegration in Malaysia.

The home minister must also explain why, despite the existence of this law, is there no end to seditious remarks? Why was a statement such as 'Apa lagi Cina mahu?' (What more do the Chinese want) published by Utusan despite the Sedition Act still being in force?

If a law loses its efficacy in stamping out crime, then such a law will also lose its legitimacy to stay in force.

The truth is that what Malaysians really need is not the Sedition Act to do away with or settle racial prejudices.

On the contrary, we badly need real freedom and political maturity to discuss all matters affecting our people of all races and religions, including the so-called sensitive issues, without being haunted by this wicked law.


MOHAMED HANIPA MAIDIN is the MP for Sepang. He is a lawyer by profession and a PAS central committee member.