AG should seriously review use of Sedition Act - Wan Ji

INTERVIEW | Muslim preacher Wan Ji Wan Hussin (photo, above) said Attorney-General Tommy Thomas should begin to seriously review the use of the Sedition Act 1948 before more people are victimised by the controversial law.

Wan Ji, currently appealing his own conviction under the security law, said a review was needed especially as Pakatan Harapan had promised to repeal the Sedition Act in its GE14 manifesto.

The use of other problematic acts such as the Security Offences and Special Measures Act 2012 (Sosma), Prevention of Crime Act (Poca) and Prevention of Terrorism Act (Pota) should also be looked into, he said.

“The AG should take seriously the Harapan government’s policy (to eventually repeal the act), he said in an interview with Malaysiakini last Tuesday.

Prior to Harapan taking over governance, Wan Ji was first sentenced to nine months' jail on a 2014 sedition charge over a Facebook post about Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah of Selangor.

However, his sentence was enhanced to a year after the Shah Alam High Court allowed a cross-appeal by the prosecution.

The cross-appeal was made on April 9, 2018, when the BN administration still held office. 

Thomas had on Friday said that the Attorney-General's Chambers’ policy is to review sedition cases still in the courts on an individual basis.

This, he said, was dependant on written representations from an accused or his lawyer, which was not sent in Wan Ji’s case. Hence, Thomas (photo, above) said the case had escaped his attention.

This was dismissed by Wan Ji, who told Malaysiakini that the attorney-general could not use the excuse that he had not been informed of the case by the former’s lawyer.

Wan Ji's counsel Mohd Radzlan Jalaluddin had claimed he did not write to the Attorney-General's Chambers’ to review his client's case as the NGO Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram) had already done so in October.

“That (claim) is inaccurate as Suaram has (allegedly) written to him (regarding my case). Don’t tell me my lawyer must send a letter after Suaram has done so? Then there would be an overlap.

“I do not know what problems the AG and his officers have that the information did not reach him,” Wan Ji, who is also the former aide to current Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng, said. 

Meanwhile, Thomas had stated that while not a single person has been charged under the Sedition Act since GE14, the controversial law has yet to be repealed and “cannot be totally disregarded”.

"Upon assuming office on June 2018, I decided, with regard to alternative laws in our statute books (including provisions in the Penal Code), to only turn to Sedition Act as a measure of last resort,” Thomas had said.

After Wan Ji's jailing, Kit Siang wants DPPs to read Harapan manifesto

Let Wan Ji be the last unjust victim of Sedition Act

No new charges under Sedition Act since GE14, says Thomas

The Sedition Act should not be replaced in name only