The Bar Council has invited the 1Malaysia Youth Graduands Club (KBGM) for a dialogue to educate the group on the Federal Constitution following its concerns that the 'MyConstitution' campaign materials allegedly contain seditious words.

PerlembagaanKu or MyConstitution, is a nationwide campaign launched last November and funded by the Bar Council and the government to increase awareness of the people on the constitution.

However, seeing red over a certain paragraph in the campaign's booklet which has been distributed, the 1Malaysia Youth Graduands Club secretary-general Ezaruddin Abdul Rahman lodged a police report alleging that it insinuated that the people had the right to amend the Federal Constitution if they voted for members of Parliament who had such an intention.

NONE "We believe that KBGM's concerns about the campaign are misplaced, and stem from a lack of knowledge and understanding of the campaign as well as the federal constitution," said the statement signed by president Ragunath Kesavan ( right ).

"The campaign's aim is to increase awareness of the constitution among Malaysians because the constitution defines our country. It is not the Malaysian Bar's aim to seek to amend the constitution," said Ragunath.

Clarifying the matter, campaign chief and lawyer Edmund Bon said that it is possible that the group was referring to the frequently asked questions (FAQs) section of the booklet where a question was posed on amending the constitution.

Constitutional amendments possible

The printed version of the 'MyConstitution' Rakyat Guides is available at the Bar Council in Kuala Lumpur and can be downloaded from the website as well.

"KBGM's main concern seems to be that the Rakyat Guides (the booklet) have informed the Malaysian public that the constitution says it can be amended by members of Parliament who are elected by Malaysians. The constitution does in fact say this," read Ragunath's statement.

Bon affirmed that Parliament has amended the constitution more than 40 times since independence in 1957 with approximately 650 individual amendments.

The statement also stressed that constitutional amendments require support from two-thirds of MPs and certain provisions popularly relating to the special position of the Malays, can only be amended with the consent of the Rulers Council.

parliament ipcmc roundtable talk 281207 edmund bon "We are complementing the government education system by educating everyone on our constitution... but I guess this is good publicity for the campaign," said Bon ( left ), amused over the report.

He noted that the campaign's support base has expanded greatly as the committee has been bombarded with countless emails and responses on its page on social networking website Facebook and micro blogging portal Twitter .

"They (KBGM) are wantonly and arbitrarily abusing the Sedition Act although the basic fundamentals of the campaign is bipartisan," said Bon.

He denied KBGM's claim that the campaign was funded by an anti-government group and stressed that their activities are ratified by Dewan Rakyat speakers, government ministers and the Menteris Besar of Selangor and Kedah as well as MPs and other organisations.

"This is first time a campaign in Malaysia has been supported by both sides of the divide... that's how effective and neutral our campaign is, it's an apolitical campaign," he asserted.

The Bar Council will be holding a press conference on its invitation for a dialogue with KBGM tomorrow.