Deputy Home Minister Wan Junaidi Jaafar said some bills tabled by the government go beyond what the Home Ministry expects.

Asked specifically about the controversial Sedition Act amendments, Wan Junaidi said that in general sometimes bills are tabled before the ministry even getting a preview.

"You see the methodology of coming up with the law is we meet in the ministry and then we pass the whole thing in a concept of what we want (to the Attorney-General's Chambers)," he told reporters when met at the Parliament lobby.

"Sometimes we don’t see the finished bill, you see, because the Home Ministry is a huge ministry and the AGC is also very busy.

"Then we find that the thing we wanted in the first instance was not inside (the bill) and something else they put in."

However, he said Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi will further speak on the amendments when he winds up debates tomorow.

The government has tabled amendments to the Sedition Act introducing new provisions, including no bail upon arrest and a maximum jail sentence of 20 years for offences causing bodily injury and damage to property.

The amendments include religious incitement and secession being placed under the purview of sedition laws as well.

The bill is expected to be passed during the current parliamentary sitting, which ends tomorrow.

BN's Kinabatangan MP Bung Moktar Radin (right) earlier urged the government to refine the bill it gives the Sedition Act too much power.

"People should be able to voice their concerns without being implicated.

"For some people, the awareness is not there. They just ‘Like’ something on Facebook or something similar. That is why I ask the minister, how if village people ‘Like’ a statement on Facebook? Are they going to be arrested?

"That is not good. That’s why we must see carefully the content of the amendments and whether there should be more amendments to protect the people and the country," Bung told reporters at the Parliament lobby.

The Bar Council said the bill limits the judiciary's power.

"The amendments are repugnant to the rule of law. There is still no clarity on what amounts to 'seditious tendency' in Section 3(1) of the act but there is now a new head of seditious tendency that is vague.

"The enhancement of punishment, with no more fine, is harsh and disproportionate to the purported offence. It will automatically disqualify a MP. What is more serious is the fixing of a minimum sentence which is an interference with judicial discretion on sentencing," he told Malaysiakini.

Under the amendments, Thiru ( left ) said a judge cannot give out a sentence of imprisonment that is less than three years.

Besides this, he added that a judge cannot discharge a person convicted of sedition conditionally or unconditionally or take into account the fact that the person is a youthful offender or that the person is a first time offender.

The government on Wednesday deferred the tabling of amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code despite it already being debated, after BN MPs raised concern that it gives police excessive powers.

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