Sarawak PKR Youth and PKR Bandar Kuching division has launched a year-long campaign starting today calling for the abolishment of the Sedition Act.

Organised in conjunction with the campaign initiated by the national young lawyers committee of the Bar Council, it started in Kubah Ria from 9 to 11am today to collect signatures for the petition.

“We are planning to bring this campaign to other parts of Sarawak as this is a matter that affects everyone including the rural community,” said PKR Bandar Kuching division chief Simon Siah Sy Jen.

“The campaign is open to everyone including Barisan Nasional members who believe that the sedition act 1948 should be abolished.

“Therefore, we also ask all parties to come and join us in this campaign,” he said.

Elaborating further, Simon said that it is a trend set by the Barisan Nasional government to charge  dissenting voices with this archaic  1948 Act.

“It is said that the offence of sedition has its roots in pre-colonial Britain where it was an offence to defame the King or the Queen.

“However, the United Kingdom and other countries of the Commonwealth, of which Malaysia is a member, have already abolished the use of sedition act, while our country is still using it to-date, “ he said.

Simon, who is a lawyer said: “The most ridiculous use of sedition act is the recent arrest of Professor Azmi Sharom for offering his legal opinion, which is something that lawyers like us always do in court.”

“We will submit to the Court decisions which we deem to be legally wrong or write  articles dissecting the decisions based on established schools of thought even though the opinions could differ,” he said.

Still glued to archaic law

Azmi ( below )rightly pointed out during a forum yesterday that the Barisan Nasional government seemed to think that the legal opinion is a dangerous thing.

“It also seems that there is selective prosecution, when it comes to choosing who is to be charged.

“We all known of certain politicians or even ministers who on a weekly basis utter seditious words against races and even against certain other parties and yet these are the people that Barisan Nasional government will never prosecute,” he said.

Simon said that Sarawak PKR Youth and Bandar Kuching division would be joining and participating in the year-long ‘Mansuh Akta Hasutan’ organised the national young lawyers of the Bar council to call for the abolishment of the sedition act in Sarawak.

This campaign, he said, is to create awareness of the act and to build a ‘critical mass’ of persons who support its repeal.

Expressing a similar sentiment, PKR Sarawak Women Wing’s legal advisor Chua Kuan Ching said the act was created by the British colonial with the purpose of tackling communism in the country.

“It is outdated and obsolete law, but has now been used as a tool to undermine freedom of expression which is guaranteed in Article 10 of our Federal Constitution.

“The sedition act should no longer be applicable especially when the government is intending to repeal it by introducing national harmony act,”she said.

On the arrest of  Azmi, Chua said that it is normal for scholars and academics to have differing school of thoughts and opinions.

She added that if this unhealthy trend persists it will only discourage students, younger generations and even other academicians supposed to educate our future leaders to ‘think-out-of the box’ and indirectly undermines critical thinking and academic freedom in our country which is essential and necessary for us in moving forward as a developing nation.