{"id":10824,"date":"2014-11-11T17:45:47","date_gmt":"2014-11-11T09:45:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/?p=10824"},"modified":"2014-11-11T17:45:47","modified_gmt":"2014-11-11T09:45:47","slug":"in-sedition-act-procrastination-najib-premiership-seen-to-be-giving-way-to-right-wing-extremists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/in-sedition-act-procrastination-najib-premiership-seen-to-be-giving-way-to-right-wing-extremists\/","title":{"rendered":"In Sedition Act procrastination, Najib premiership seen to be giving way to right wing extremists"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"steven-sim-1-650x400<\/a>In a strongly-worded statement today, Bukit Mertajam MP Steven Sim said that Prime Minister Najib Razak\u2019s 2012 promise to repeal the Sedition Act is \u201cmore and more watered down\u201d as\u00a0Barisan Nasional parliamentary responses showed\u00a0that Putrajaya was giving way to right wing extremists.<\/p>\n

Sim urged the Prime Minister to make good his pledge\u00a0to\u00a0repeal the Act “unless he admits to lying to Malaysians or being cowed by right wing extremists.”<\/span><\/p>\n

In a written reply to Sim\u2019s question in Parliament asking why Najib had not delivered upon his pledge to abolish the Act, Minister in the Prime Minister\u2019s Department Hajah Nancy Binti Haji Shukri said that the government would do so after \u201conly after a consultation process\u201d.<\/p>\n

From her reply, Sim said\u00a0that this showed\u00a0Najib allowing right wing extremists dictate\u00a0government agenda despite projecting himself as a moderate leader globally.<\/p>\n

Broken promise as Najib gives way to right wing extremists<\/strong><\/p>\n

Earlier this year, Kulai MP Teo Nie Ching asked a similar question in Parliament but was denied an answer by Speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia who said that there were \u201cill assumptions\u201d that could be derived from the question.<\/p>\n

Najib had on July 2012 promised to repeal the colonial era Sedition Act in favour of a more democratic nation. This was prior to GE 13.<\/p>\n

Sim said that Najib had not been firm with regard to this promise as soon as UMNO returned to power following the elections.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we can see how Najib is slowly giving way to right wing extremists who seek to maintain this imperialist legislation which was meant to gag the democratic rights of the people, or in the words of progressive UMNO leader, former deputy minister Saifuddin Abdullah – \u201cto strike fear in people\u201d ,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Saifuddin had opined that the Prime Minister was \u201cpressured by those around him\u201d not to proceed with abolishing the Act.<\/p>\n

“Bad excuse” to keep\u00a0the Act<\/strong><\/p>\n

Two days ago, Wanita UMNO Chief Sharizat Abdul Jalil urged Najib to halt all efforts to repeal the Act and consult the party\u2019s grassroot members before making a decision.<\/p>\n

Speaking at a closed-door forum on \u201cUnderstanding the Sedition Act\u201d, she said that the women\u2019s group would submit a memorandum to the Prime Minister and launch a petition drive to support the Act.<\/p>\n

Sharizat, Wanita UMNO and many other right wing groups such as Perkasa and ISMA have agreed that the law stay put to \u201cguarantee internal security and public order\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, Steven Sim, like many Pakatan Rakyat leaders dismissed this as an \u201cobvious bad excuse\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven with the Sedition Act, prosecution is random with those targeted being overwhelmingly those who oppose the ruling party, UMNO,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said that this year alone, 40 people have been investigated, charged and convicted under the Act, including Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim, opposition politicians, academics and one journalist.<\/p>\n

Sim explained that to ensure public order and prevent hate crimes, there are laws including the Penal Code that could be used instead. Therefore, he explained that there is no need to resort to the Sedition Act \u2013 which he believes is vague and often abused.<\/p>\n

He asked that a moratorium be imposed on the enforcement of the Act including those currently being investigated for sedition and that a parliamentary committee be established to review and consider the proposals of the National Unity Consultative Council to replace the Act. Sim even urged the government to be done with the Act by the end of this Parliamentary sitting.<\/p>\n

Despite repeated calls from rights groups and even international observers, the Najib UMNO premiership has shown no sign of delivering on the\u00a0pre-election promise to abolish the archaic law. – The Rocket<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a strongly-worded statement today, Bukit Mertajam MP Steven Sim said that Prime Minister Najib Razak\u2019s 2012 promise to repeal the Sedition Act is \u201cmore and more watered down\u201d as\u00a0Barisan Nasional parliamentary responses showed\u00a0that Putrajaya was giving way to right wing extremists. Sim urged the Prime Minister to make good his pledge\u00a0to\u00a0repeal the Act “unless […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10825,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[274],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10824"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10824\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10830,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10824\/revisions\/10830"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}