The newly-amended Sedition Act is not perfect, but it’s surprisingly good. That fact has been lost amid the melodramatic and embarrassingly hyperbolic accusations levelled at the Najib Abdul Razak government. One commentator (and I’m looking at you, Zaid Ibrahim) even compared the government to Stalinist Russia. I wonder if Zaid could direct me to the gulag closest to Kuala Lumpur. The one in his head doesn’t count.

Yes, there have been legitimate questions raised over the Sedition Act amendments. The prohibition on insulting religion may be used to bar criticism of religious authorities and religious laws (for example, hudud). The ban on ‘propagating’ seditious speech is worded vaguely enough to apply to online shares and retweets of ‘problematic’ content.

Yet the fact remains that the amended law is the most significant civil liberties achievement in recent memory. Consider that the Sedition Act no longer criminalises criticism of the government or the ‘administration of justice’ in Malaysia.

This is even more impressive when you remember Najib’s vow at the Umno general assembly to further strengthen the Sedition Act. This indicates that the moderate wing of Barisan National isn’t as toothless as it seems, and that the prime minister’s instincts are essentially moderate.

No doubt the prime minister faced immense political resistance within his own party against his initial efforts to abolish the Sedition Act. So he deserves much credit for significantly narrowing the scope of the Sedition Act in the face of such opposition.

Here’s our present situation - 67 years after its inception, the Sedition Act no longer criminalises criticism of the government. The Internal Security Act (ISA) is also no more. The opposition and other government critics are free to organise forums, press conferences, and even protests (admittedly in a limited manner) to denounce the government and its policies.

This is genuine progress willfully ignored by Pakatan and its supporters in their reflexive and juvenile hostility to anything Najib does.

Contrast this to the 22-year-long Mahathir Mohamad era when dissent was routinely crushed with the ISA. Good luck organising an anti-ISA forum if people don’t even know where you're being detained, or when you’ll be released.

So it is no small amount of irony that Pakatan has now embraced Mahathir in its desperate quest to unseat Najib. When historians speak of Mahathir as one of Asia's most notorious ‘strongmen’, they’re not referring to the size of his biceps. It’s as if many in the country have given in to collective amnesia as they cheer the very architect of the Malaysian police state over a prime minister who has significantly enlarged democratic space in the country.

This much is clear - the repeal of the ISA and the decriminalisation of government criticism under the Sedition Act would be absolutely unthinkable under Mahathir. Zaid Ibrahim may cry Stalinism, but Malaysia’s KGB seems to be remarkably restrained even as he spews vitriol against the government on a regular basis. A mere 15 years ago, it would likely be a different story altogether. It’s imperfect progress, but still progress. And I’ll take it over Mahathirism.