The statement issued by the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) yesterday refuting that the Sedition Act was being used for political persecution is proof that the current government is the "most shambolic administration in Malaysian history", a veteran opposition lawmaker said.

 

DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang said that the statement, which was not signed by any individual, reflected the nature of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's administration, where the "right hand did not know what the left hand is doing".

 

"Firstly, who issued the PMO statement? Why is it anonymous?" Lim ( right ) asked in a statement, saying that not revealing the person who wrote it was akin to admitting that the "authority" to make it was debatable and questionable.

 

The PMO statement said that the sedition charges were a court matter, and Lim said that the statement reflected that "those in authority do not know what they are doing."

 

"No credible prime minister would on the one hand promise to make Malaysia the “best democracy in the world” and yet allow his attorney-general to launch a prosecution dragnet against opposition leaders and dissent which only happens in the worst democracies in the world," Lim said.

 

Lim said that those running the government are being elbowed out by forces which are bent on making Malaysia among the "worst democracies" in the world.

 

Meanwhile, constitutional expert Abdul Aziz Bari ( left ) was also critical of the PMO statement, saying that it is "wrong" for it to pass the buck to the courts.

 

He said that investigation and prosecution are both under the purview of the executive and not the judiciary.

 

"If Najib administration - the executive - is really committed to the repeal of sedition law then it must put to a stop all the investigations and trials immediately," he said.

 

'The fact remains that it is the government who actually decides what law to use during the trial. The judges - despite being independent - have no choice but to play within the framework chosen by the government," he added.