Former Bar Council president Ambiga Sreenevasan has told off de facto law minister Nancy Shukri over her statement that it is “disrespectful but not unlawful” to table amendments to the Sedition Act 1948 now.

 

She said since the Federal Court is mulling over the constitutionality of the law, it would have been a total waste of Parliament’s time if the court declares the law unconstitutional.

 

“It doesn’t make sense (to say) that it is lawful or unlawful. That is not the point.

 

“The point is that the Federal Court may actually declare this legislation null and void. You are showing no respect to the bench by even discussing amendments,” she told a press conference today in her capacity as spokesperson for the Abolish Sedition Act Movement (GHAH).

 

Yesterday, several Pakatan Rakyat MPs had applied to the Dewan Rakyat Speaker’s Office to defer the government’s proposed Sedition Act amendments until the Federal Court has made its decision.

Ensure legitimate criticisms

 

In response however, Nancy ( right ) reportedly told reporters, “Yes, it may be a case of disrespecting the Federal Court review, but disrespecting is not against the law, and this is just an opinion, an interpretation.”

 

Earlier, Ambiga and several activists arrived at parliament to handover a memorandum opposing the Sedition Act and its proposed amendments, calling for a moratorium and repeal of the law.

 

The memorandum laid out 11 reasons to oppose the amendments, pointing out the decriminalisation of “seditious tendency” against the government and the judiciary was only “a small improvement”.

 

The 11 reasons included the removal of judicial discretion by introducing a mandatory jail sentence and allowing the court to authorise the blocking of websites where anonymous seditious comments are posted and the writers or writers could not be traced.

 

“We, too, believe that freedom of speech is not absolute.

"However the threshold for curbing freedom of speech - e.g. incitement to violence and hate speech - must be high to ensure legitimate criticisms and political dissent are not criminalised,” the memorandum said.