YOURSAY ‘This is only the beginning. Worse is yet to come.’
Shah Alam MP to be charged with sedition
Swipenter: Across the Causeway, the courts are used to bankrupt opposition politicians and dissidents in order to silence and muzzle them. In Bolehland, the Umno Baru government uses the Sedition Act to disqualify opposition politicians.
Both course of action have more or less the same desired effects and outcome. The only defence against such actions is a fierce and independent judiciary acting without fear and favour but there is a big question mark hanging over the impartiality of the judiciary on both sides of the Causeway.
Disgusted: It looks like the rakyat have to take to the streets to get Umno to listen to rakyat if they make frivolous charges and imprison opposition MPs and Aduns. This is going too far.
PM Najib Razak seems to be fighting his opposition which was democratically elected by engaging dirty tactics, such as using the police, attorney-general (AG) and the judiciary.
Onyourtoes: Can we see soon there will be no opposition leaders left to lead us? The government is systematically obliterating all of them with ridiculous charges.
If PAS still cannot see all these baloney and continue to haggle over who should be Selangor's MB, I think it is game over for our nascent democracy and two-party system in the country.
Many Malaysians are short-term nincompoop thinkers when it comes to the Khalid Ibrahim issue. What Khalid’s contributions? He is the greatest troublemaker ever produced by Pakatan Rakyat.
David Dass: I suppose that it is for the courts to establish the limits of our constitutional right to free speech. Many of us believe that judgments can be criticised and that the exercise of a ruler of his constitutional duties can be challenged in a court of law.
Many of us also believe that the exercise of powers of Islamic bodies like Jakim, Jais and Mais can be challenged. How can it be wrong for someone to say curb the powers of Jais (Selangar Islamic Religious Department)? That is not a statement about the sultan.
And how can someone be charged for sedition if he challenged the exercise by a ruler of his constitutional power to either form a government or to dissolve a government?
The threat or the actual use of our courts should not be the subject of a prosecution. The courts have the power to punish someone who abuses the judicial process. And parties to a suit can sue for malicious prosecution.
Kamikasi: This is how Internal Security Act (ISA) was used - to silent the voice of the people. The government must know that today Internet is used widely and in time to come when people become fed up with this sort of intimidation, the royalty will not be spared either and the country will find itself battling cyber insults that will tarnish the country's image.
I wonder how the authorities will cope with such actions. The way forward is education and justice. The government has all the means to counter such actions through the mainstream media.
Should the opposition be allowed to justify their actions in the mainstream media, we will see a much mature political environment. There will then be a level-playing field and the opposition need not resort to sensational news to get attention.
Clearly, the Mahathir Mohamad era is over for good.
GI Joe: How come only opposition MPs are charged with such harmless comments but the BN and their supporters never got charged even though their remarks are even more dangerous and divisive?
It’s so obvious that there is injustice displayed in the treatment of MPs. The rakyat are not stupid. No wonder the Pakatan is getting stronger each day. Thanks to all the brave MPs who dare to speak out.
Kangkung: Indeed, everyone is making seditious statements except for those connected to Umno. What a convenient way for Umno to get revenge.
Ferdtan: Well, we got rid of ISA didn't we after a long and hard fight? And now we have another draconian law, Sedition Act, to content with whereby the interpretation of its offence is up to the AG.
When a tick 'yes' on the Facebook page 'I love Isreal' by a schoolboy can be investigated by the authorities under this act, something must be very wrong.
We had attended a few candlelight vigils to call for the abolition of ISA and many were arrested, including the opposition lawmakers.
I remember well the arrests of protestors on Aug 1, 2010 at Amcorp Mall, Petaling Jaya, while they were singing the national anthem. Will it be déjà vu again? Will the NGOs organise candlelight vigils - this time against the Sedition Act?
I hope many young Malaysians will come forward to attend such vigils since this country will be theirs, and we are getting a bit too old to run should there be a police crackdown. Nevertheless we shall be there.
Casey: To paraphrase Kurt Huber, a university professor and member of the White Rose group, which carried out the resistance against Nazi Germany:
"A regime that suppresses all freedom of speech, and which by imposing the most terrible punishments, treats each and every attempt at criticism, however morally justified, and every suggestion for improvement as seditious or plotting to high treason, is a repressive regime."
Repressive justice or political repression or political discrimination, as they're used interchangeably, is the persecution of an individual or group for political reasons, particularly for the purpose of restricting or preventing their ability to take part in the political life of a society.
In Malaysia, since the ascension of Mahathir, repressive justice is often perpetrated by the ruling government against political foes, critics, activists and dissidents.
The fundamental problem is that there's no credibility in the judicial system, nor is there in executive branch of the government after Mahathir's usurpation of the principle of trias politica or separation of power.
What we've now is a system that's been completely politicised and bastardised. But Umno, as the dominant political party, should take notice that - to quote Woodrow Wilson - "the seed of revolution is repression."
Tholu: You trim one limb of the opposition tree, many more will grow in its place. It will grow with more vigour and would develop a natural mechanism within to become more resilient.
Umno's agenda of getting rid of dissenters is going to backfire and the day this will happen is on the day of the 14th general election.
My Opinion: This is only the beginning. Worse is yet to come. But the rakyat is also ready for the spring. Sometimes spring may come earlier in the year but we must always be prepared for winter.
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