A group of Malaysian lawyers took to the streets this morning in a peaceful march to demand Putrajaya honour its two-year old pledge to revoke the Sedition Act 1948. The Malaysian Bar’s Walk for Peace and Freedom 2014 is part of the Bar’s campaign to repeal the Sedition Act 1948, and to suspend the use of the Act, pending its repeal.
This is the fourth peaceful walk/march in the Malaysian Bar’s 67-year history. Some of the prominent marches include the one in 2007, the “Walk for Justice” in relation to the judicial appointment scandal, and the one in 2011, the “Walk for Freedom to Walk” for the Peaceful Assembly Act Bill.
According to a statement by Christopher Leong, the President of the Malaysian Bar, The Walk for Peace and Freedom 2014 is also to publicly support the Prime Minister’s call to “speak up,” instead of “ceding public space to extremists.”
“This walk by the Malaysian Bar is part of our response to that call by the prime minister for moderates to stand up and speak out,” said Leong, in an interview with local radio station BFM.
The Sedition Act 1948 was made law during the British colonial era. The Act, according to the Malaysian Bar, criminalises speech uttered ‘to excite disaffection’ against the government. According to the Bar, the Act contradicts the United Nation’s principles of human rights, which Malaysia is subject to.
An article on the Malay Mail’s site wrote that in 2012, PM Najib Razak had sworn to revoke the Act and to replace it with national harmony laws. This was supposed to be part of his legal reforms to provide Malaysians with greater civil liberties. Unfortunately, the move was not received favourably among some conservative Malay-Muslim groups, who argue that “eliminating the law would also remove the restrictions on alleged demands to do away with a host of constitutional provisions, primarily those concerning Bumiputera privileges.”
The Malaysian Bar’s Vice-President Steven Thiru calls the Act an “obsolete” law, one that holds back freedom of thought. Thiru says that Putrajaya has used the old law more, since declaring its intention to repeal it.
In the past 9 months, 12 cases have been prosecuted under the Sedition Act.
The Malaysian Bar’s Walk for Peace and Freedom took place this morning at the Padang Merbok car park in Putrajaya.
Story and quote from: The Malay Mail Online
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