Anti-Sedition Act voices get louder

DAP vice-chairman M. Kula Segaran rubbishes Shahidan's claims that PM Najib never meant to repeal the Act.

PETALING JAYA: A pro-Pakatan think tank calling themselves Political Studies for Change (KPRU) today issued a letter seeking an explanation from Prime Minister (PM) Najib Tun Razak for the comment from his Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Shahidan Kassim, that Putrajaya never promised to abolish the Sedition Act (SA) but only to review it.

The letter reads, “Such a claim is shocking as our PM had already made his promise two years ago on 11 July 2012, which was one year before GE13 that the Sedition Act would be repealed. Moreover, he even told the BBC in an interview two months after GE13, that the SA would be replaced by the National Harmony Act.”

KPRU says that the PM should stand up and explain to the people if he intends to renege on the promise he made in full view of the world media.

The SA has recently been used to prosecute a whole slew of politicians, activists and even a journalist and an academic.

KPRU is of the view that these prosecutions are nothing more than an action to silence critics who have been highlighting the current problems plaguing the Najib administration, and to distract the public from focusing their attention on these issues.

In George Town, DAP vice-chairman M. Kula Segaran rubbished Shahidan’s claims that PM Najib never meant to repeal the Act but only to review it, when Najib went on record only two years ago, promising to repeal the colonial-era law and replace it with a new National Harmony Act.

He also said that many right thinking Malaysians were shocked and infuriated by the recent widening of the sedition net to stifle freedom of expression, and demanded that Najib make good on his promise to repeal the draconian Sedition Act.