Endless possibilities in the Land of Sedition

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YOURSAY ‘If you are not charged with sedition, it shows you’re a nobody.’

Lawyer Edmund Bon called in over sedition

Ferdtan: We are curious that the string of arrests by the police against Pakatan Rakyat leaders, supporters, critics or just ordinary commentators of BN, royalty, Islam, etc - real or imaginary - only started recently.

 

We can’t help feeling that this may be an orchestrated rush to gag Malaysians before Umno’s general assembly later in the year.

 

More are expected to be charged soon. One person, a thousand apologies to him, possibly high on the list is legal expert Abdul Aziz Bari, who had courageously defended the Selangor constitution.

 

Is such harassment a show of strength by PM Najib Razak due to the criticism from former PM Dr Mahathir Mohamad that he was too soft with the opposition?

 

There must be a secret group, a BN cabal, behind all these arrests. Surely this cannot be incidental. The first salvo was the arrests of 154 Penang voluntary patrol team (PPS) members on Independence Day.

 

I doubt that the police or IGP (inspector-general of police) would act without carefully thinking through the political implications. Someone must be pulling the string.

 

Moonraker: Malaysia is doing the same thing as Botswana where recently the editor of a journal was charged with sedition for claiming that the president of that country was involved in a traffic accident.

 

When the sedition charge was brought up for hearing, the High Court called on the government to give an explanation. Let us hope that our soon-to-be world-class judiciary would follow the example of the judiciary in Botswana.

 

Axolotl: I've waited six years to see the headline: Najib called in for questioning over private eye P Balasubramanian's second statutory declaration.

 

As long as that doesn't happen, Malaysia is condemned to degenerate into a failed state even worse than Zimbabwe.

 

Ozzie Jo: What can I say? Just by looking at the list of people who have been charged with or accused of sedition in the last few months will tell you that anyone who dares to voice alternative views to the government would be worth their salt if they hadn't been charged with sedition already.

 

This is almost like the good old ISA (Internal Security Act) days - having spent a period incarcerated under ISA suddenly made you so much more credible.

So bring it on, this is one great way of making people aware of the ‘plight of the common people’ of Malaysia.

 

Syabas BN, you have given so much more credibility to what was previously just a group hustlers...

 

Maplesyrup: Lawyer Edmund Bon's statement was uttered in January and eight months have since lapsed. Had there been any unrest or chaos in Malaysia directly linked to that statement?

From the media, it seems that some think the description of what is seditious is ambiguous. But surely just because someone lodge a police report cannot qualify the statement as being seditious?

 

My Opinion: Even if Bon is wrong, at most he should only be branded as (1) a stupid lawyer; (2) his view is not in line with the decision of the court (if any); or (3) his opinion was inadvertently mistaken and not in line with the majority.

 

Nothing of the above can consider a criminal offence.

 

Chris Wong: Bon has an opinion. As do many Malaysians. Using the Sedition Act to scare us will only make us hate the government more.

 

I think Umno has no more cards to play. Of all the lawyers that I know, Bon has moved more Malaysians to care and act for the country than those who care only about themselves.

 

CQ Muar: I reckon Malaysia is about the only country in the entire world with a record-breaking clampdown on individuals suspicious of "sedition".

 

No one seems to be safe and spared: politicians, activists, academicians, journalists and lawyers. Of course, no one except those who are the actual culprits who ought to be hauled up under the Sedition Act.

 

Widely known to have made allegedly seditious statements are those super-extremists from Perkasa, Isma, and a host of others.

 

Even those demoralising statements by former PM Dr Mahathir Mohamad about Malays being lazy fall under such seditious dragnet.

 

The obvious question to ask: "Why such a selective application of the law?"

 

Man on the Street: The law in this country has two different standards. Umno leaders are given immunity to their seditious remarks, whereas the ordinary people were charged with sedition blatantly for every general remark, legal opinion and academic opinion.

 

Anonymous #19098644: In Malaysia, if you are not charged with sedition for something completely frivolous, it shows you are a nobody.

 

If you are a racist, extremist, and inciting racial hatred like Isma and Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and Perkasa chief Ibrahim Ali have done, be assured you won’t be slapped with sedition charges because your are a nobody.

 


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