PKR supports NGOs for abolishment of Sedition Act (Updated)

PETALING JAYA: PKR will be fully supporting efforts by several NGOs for the abolishment of the Sedition Act.
Its vice-president Rafizi Ramli (pix) said the party will get its Members of Parliaments, state assemblymen and divisions to fully support the movement dubbed "Mansuh Akta Hasutan (MAH)" (Abolish the Sedition Act).
"We believe that most of the rakyat wants the act repelled - and this desire can be achieved through a collaboration of NGOs, political parties, academicians, student movements and the public," he said, adding that it was similar to the Gerakan Mansuh ISA movement in the past.
Rafizi added that the party will organise a nationwide MAH campaign from this month onwards which involves top PKR leaders to talk about the matter, collecting signatures for petitions to call for the abolishment of the act, as well as to raise an emergency motion on the matter in the next Parliament sitting.
"Even though Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak had announced that his administration will abolish the act a few years ago, his administration is still using the act to go against those who oppose the administration," he alleged, adding that the Barisan Nasional government will not abolish the act.
Speaking to a press conference at the PKR headquarters today, Rafizi called on Najib to fulfil these three requests:
1. To immediately abolish the Sedition Act
2. To drop all charges under the Act
3. To stop any attempts to reintroduce the act through other acts.
"We believe that the 52% of the people who voted for Pakatan Rakyat in the General Elections last year, also rejects the Sedition Act," he said.
He also pointed out that Najib, as well as the Attorney General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail, and Inspector General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar should be answerable to sedition charges made so far.
Rafizi was referring to the several Pakatan Rakyat lawmakers, who have been charged with sedition - including PKR's Padang Serai MP N. Surendran, PAS' Shah Alam MP Khalid Samad and DAP's Seri Delima assemblyman RSN Rayer.
Both Seputeh MP Teresa Kok (DAP) and Batu MP Tian Chua (PKR) are also facing trial for sedition.
It is also reported that Rafizi is charged with threatening peace for his comments against Umno members while former Perak Mentri Besar and Changkat Jering assemblyman Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin was charged with criminal defamation.
On Sept 2, Universiti Malaya (UM) law professor and former Deputy Dean UM's Law Faculty Professor Azmi Sharom was slapped with the same charge under Section 4(1)(b) of the Sedition Act 1948, while Penang police chief Senior Deputy Comm Datuk Wira Abdul Rahim Hanafi was reported saying that Malaysiakini reporter Susan Loone and Penang state exco Phee Boon Poh will be investigated under the Sedition Act for a seditious article published in the news portal.
Meanwhile, DAP slammed the BN-led government for charging Azmi with sedition over his remarks on the Perak constitutional crisis in an online news portal article on Aug 14.
DAP Secretary-General Lim Guan Eng questioned the promise made by Najib to repeal the Sedition Act in 2012 and repeated it in July 2013, during an interview by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).
He said the extent of the act "used to stifle dissent is no different from 'carpet-bombing' to the extent that it is now widened to include civil society like prominent law academics with no political affiliation."
"If Azmi, as a former Deputy Dean of the UM law faculty - the top law school in Malaysia, can be charged for sedition for giving his academic legal viewpoint, there is no more respect for the rule of law in Malaysia," he added.