The law that will be proposed as a replacement to the Sedition Act 1948 is still in the drafting stage, two years after Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak vowed to abolish the law to make way for a more even-handed National Harmony Act, said de facto Law Minister and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Nancy Shukri.
The new law, is being drafted by the National Unity Consultative Council (NUCC), who expect to show the bill deaft to the Cabinet before a date is set for its presentation in Parliament is determined.
“We are still drafting it actually, there are more things to come,” Shukri told The Malay Mail Online yesterday. She declined to elaborate further on the issue over the phone, saying she was overseas.
NUCC member and PAS MP Datuk Dr Mujahid Yusof Rawa said the council will seek public input before the bill goes to the Dewan Rakyat, putting the earliest presentation date at December this year.
The 66-year old Sedition Act has been criticised by some quarters as being a government tool to clamp down on dissent. DAP MP for Seputeh Teresa Kok was recently charged with sedition over her YouTube Chinese New Year video ‘Onederful Malaysia’; the late Karpal Singh was also charged and recently convicted of sedition over his remarks on the 2009 Perak constitutional crisis. On the other side of the political divide, Malay Muslim rights group ISMA and its president Abdullah Zaik Abdul Rahman are also being investigated over Abdullah’s comments on ethnic Chinese Malaysians.
See Also:
The DAP isn’t sure how it feels about the Sedition Act these days
IGP: ISMA being investigated for sedition
Teresa Kok pleads not guilty to sedition charge over ‘Onederful Malaysia’ video
