After being charged under the Sedition Act, law lecturer Azmi Sharom jokes at a forum today about the perils of offering legal opinions.

Azmi had the crowd in stitches when he remarked, "Good afternoon everyone, I will try to stick to 10 minutes. I will try to stick merely to my legal opinion, but that can be dangerous nowadays."

On Tuesday, the Universiti Malaya lecturer was charged under the Sedition Act for his remarks on the Perak constitutional crisis, which were published in a news report.

Sharing his thoughts on legislation criminalising hate speech, Azmi said it would be pointless if there is selective prosecution.

"That (laws against hate speech) sounds absolutely cool.

"I am all for it as long as we make sure that some types of hate speech are not considered more hateful than other types of hate speech.

"The law is one thing, but the unequal, unfair and unjust application of the law is a completely different thing altogether," he said.

"You can have the best law in the world, but if it is used against some people and not against other people, it is still a bad law," he added.

Azmi was speaking as a panellist at a session themed "Enhancing religious harmony and understanding – the way forward" and was referring to the three 'Unity Bills' slated to replace the Sedition Act.

The three are the National Unity Bill, National Harmony Bill and the National Unity and Integration Commission Bill. They are proposed by the National Unity Consultative Council (NUCC).

Meanwhile, on the sidelines of the forum, NUCC’s law and policy committee chairperson Mujahid Yusof Rawa told reporters that the government is taking too long to table the three bills.

He said the NUCC had hoped for it to be tabled by the end of the year. However the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) had said it would only be done by the end of next year.

“The longer they delay the harmony bill, the wilder the Sedition Act will be practiced,” he said, adding that the government should stop charging people under the law in spite of its intentions to repeal the draconian law.

On a related matter, Mujahid said the NUCC has proposed to the government that a parliamentary select committee (PSC) should be formed to gather more public feedback for the proposed laws.

To a question, he disagreed that the PSC would be a duplication of the public feedback that the NUCC had already gathered, saying that an additional round of public feedback would be beneficial.

He also pointed out that the government’s draft bill may be different from what the NUCC had proposed.

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