Au Zong Min (translated name)

Kwong Wah, September 5th 2014

That day while shopping at the Mall, a window display of branded clothes caught my eyes. There was a backdrop with a big poster from the STAR entitled “The Voice of the Moderates”.

The advertisement on “The Voice of the Moderates” came from the initiative of a few columnists expressing their rationales and moderation in The Star. This effort was to discard extremist remarks and conservative mindset that was spreading all kinds of extremist issues. At present the society is surrounded by a thick cloud of confrontation and uneasiness. We had to remove all these to let the multi-racial society to regain its tolerance and unique quality of mutual respect for each other.

Associate Prof. Azmi Sharom of University Malaya was a columnist of the Star publication as well as one of the participants of “The Voice of the Moderates”. On his advertisement page, we could see him lowering his head smiling with his long hair tied up with the message of: “If we acknowledge the importance of the democratic process, then we should maintain it and continue to participate in it”.

This young law scholar was well known for his open-minded remarks. Recently he was charged under the Sedition Act for expressing his view in an English portal with the content touching on the Perak Constitutional crisis in 2009. The charge stunned the academic circle as well as the middle class readers in Penang.

Those who were charged under the Sedition Act were not only the law scholar. In one month, three Pakatan Rakyat state assemblymen were charged under the same Sedition Act. (One each from PKR, DAP and PAS) In addition there were pending cases of sedition charges on the late Karpal Singh, Teresa Kok and Tian Chua. At present there were 5 state assemblymen waiting to be charged under the Sedition Act.

Besides contravening the Sedition Act, there were three other members of the Pakatan Rakyat who were charged for contravening the criminal code in their speeches. There were Rafizi and Tian Chua from PKR and Nizar from PAS. After a brief count, there were seven members of Pakatan Rakyat being hauled to court. If we include the sodomy case of the head of the Opposition, Anwar the total count will be eight. If the worst is to come, will eight by-elections be held soon?

The Sedition Act was gazetted by the British colonial government in 1948 to control public making seditious remarks. After Independence it was used to stop the communist propaganda. At the 21st century, the Sedition Act was outdated and it was regarded as typical draconian.

The Barisan Nasional Government acknowledged the existence of that act would jeopardize the reputation of democracy in Malaysia.

Two years ago, Prime Minister Najib announced the abolition of the Sedition Act by replacing it with the Harmony Act. However the bill will only be forwarded to the Parliament at the end of next year. Hence the Sedition Act still has the advantage of being used by the government. Does the Barisan Nasional government have in mind why not use the act to its maximum?

The Sedition Act was regarded as draconian in a democratic society. To apply the act, it must let the Rakyat feel that it is fair and just. However the way the Sedition Act was applied was the reverse. Many Members of the Parliament as well as state assemblymen of Pakatan Rakyat were hauled to court for sedition. Wouldn’t the Rakyat feel that the government was using the Act to counter their political rivals or dissidents?

After the 505 general election, Barisan Nasional was regarded as a weak government (It only received 48% of the total votes). An unfavourable measure taken by a weak government will result in a collective protest or cold and disheartened feeling from the Opposition, scholars and leaders of the civil and social movements. What a wishful thought.

On the printed media, the campaign in the Star Publication “Voice of the Moderates” is to dilute racial and religious extremist remarks as well as to reduce unreasonable clamorous scenes of conflicts in a multi-racial or plural society. Let the Rakyat ponder over the importance of tolerance and mutual respect especially among the middle class residents in the cities. Hence charging Azmi Sharom under the Sedition Act was a wrong move by the government which disappointed the Rakyat.

Original Source: 煽动法令与弱势政府