Replace Sedition Act with law that cannot be abused, Harapan MP urges
PARLIAMENT | A Pakatan Harapan lawmaker has urged the government to replace the Sedition Act with a law that cannot be abused in order to address individuals who incite racial and religious tensions within the country.
RSN Rayer (Harapan-Jelutong) (photo) said this after Minister in the Prime Minister's Department P Waytha Moorthy said the government would take legal action against anyone who purposely incited racial and religious sensitivities through acts such as the Sedition Act, the Penal Code and the Communication and Multimedia Act (MCMC)...
PARLIAMENT | A Pakatan Harapan lawmaker has urged the government to replace the Sedition Act with a law that cannot be abused in order to address individuals who incite racial and religious tensions within the country.
RSN Rayer (Harapan-Jelutong) (photo) said this after Minister in the Prime Minister's Department P Waytha Moorthy said the government would take legal action against anyone who purposely incited racial and religious sensitivities through acts such as the Sedition Act, the Penal Code and the Communication and Multimedia Act (MCMC).
"You said that the government has suggested using the Sedition Act. I realise as a law practitioner that the Sedition Act has been abused by the previous government.
"I am of the opinion that the Sedition Act should not be used because we have promised in our manifesto that oppressive acts which were abused should not be used.
"So I want to ask, there was a suggestion to enact a new law which has been discussed by the previous government.
"Is there a proposal, before repealing the Sedition Act, to enact a new law that keeps the aspiration of the Sedition Act while ensuring that it cannot be abused?" Rayer asked during Waytha Moorthy's wrapping up of the Budget 2020 committee stage in the Dewan Rakyat today.
Waytha Moorthy replied simply that this question should be directed to the Home Affairs Ministry.
"However, I do agree that there are elements within the Sedition Act which should remain, which I believe may be applied in the Penal Code and so on," Waytha Moorthy said.
Last Wednesday, Deputy Home Minister Azis Jamman had said the government was studying the Sedition Act to ensure that if it is repealed, the offences against the royal institution, race and religion are maintained.
He had said this would be possible by including such offences in existing laws such as the Penal Code, though it is also possible to enact a new law.
