Lawyers for Liberty (LFL) executive director Eric Paulsen today said that he would produce several Friday sermons issued by the Department for Islamic Development Malaysia (Jakim) to prove the Islamic authority was "promoting extremism" as per his controversial tweet.

 

Paulsen was today charged under the Sedition Act for his tweet last month in which he had accused Jakim of promoting "extremism every Friday".

 

"I have a few things I would bring up. Jakim in the past had also issued sermons against the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) community, and also the Shiites. I will bring up the issue of their sermons," Paulsen told reporters after being released on bail.

 

He said that he had "no choice" but to bring up the sermons as part of his defence as Jakim had not bothered to reply to his criticism.

 

"Jakim should be defending their sermons. The Information Minister (Ahmad Shabery Cheek) had even offered to have a debate between them and me. They should have taken up the offer," he said.

 

Paulsen also described the entire episode of him bring charged over his tweet as a "serious embarrassment" to the Malaysian government.

 

"We must be holding the world record for sedition charges," he said.

 

Gov't critics viewed with 'extreme prejudice'

 

He lamented that any statement made by the government's critics is being viewed with "extreme prejudice", while statements made by members of the government or pro-Umno politicians are defended vigorously.

 

"The Inspector General of Police (IGP), the Prime Minister and even the Attorney General (AG) will bend over backwards to explain those statements in the best possible context," he said, referring to Agriculture and Agro-Based Industries Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob and Perkasa chief Ibrahim Ali, among others.

 

Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch Asia Deputy Director Phil Robertson said that with the charge, Malaysia is demonstrating its "outrageous crackdown on free speech."

 

"There appears to be no limits to Prime Minister Najib (Abdul Razak)'s pursuit of his government's critics, since almost any utterance can be twisted into a violation of the broad and vague terms of the Sedition Act," he said.

 

NGO coalition Gabungan Hapus Akta Hasutan (GHAH) also condemned the charge, claiming that it demonstrated the double standards of AG Abdul Gani Patail.

"The AG, has astonishingly defended Ibrahim Ali's inflammatory calls to burn Malay and Iban language Bibles, by explaining that the statement has to be read in full context and concluded that he did not have the requisite intention, and therefore, the statement was "non-seditious in nature".

 

"This begs the questions as to why similar treatment was not given to Eric's case and the plentiful others that were charged under the Sedition Act for comments that were remotely controversial," GHAH said in a statement today.