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Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Shahidan calls Sedition critics 'IDIOTS'

Shahidan calls Sedition critics 'IDIOTS'
KUALA LUMPUR — Despite the sudden surge in sedition action against opposition politicians, activists and critics of the government over the past month, two Cabinet ministers have insisted that the crackdown was necessary and that it does not make Malaysia a police state.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim said there are reasons why certain laws exist, particularly those meant to protect the sensitivities surrounding issues like religion, race and the Malay rulers.
“So when we have shootings here and there, and if we don’t take action, you will blame the police. But when the police take action, you say it’s becoming a police state.
“I think some of these people are idiots. It is important because they are safeguarding the security of the country,” he told Malay Mail Online yesterday after a ground-breaking ceremony for Perumahan Rakyat 1Malaysia (Prima) at Seremban Sentral.
The minister in charge of parliamentary affairs added that provocation was left unchecked and “if people can just say whatever they like to anybody”, the country would deteriorate.
Shahidan added that the crackdown should not be misconstrued as a concerted effort by Putrajaya to turn Malaysia into a police state.
“You people, just because of two arrests, we are becoming a police state.
“So what else do you want? You want a country where you can kill each other?” he asked.
He said the so-called provocateurs hauled up for sedition probes have no reason to feel aggrieved with the state of the country and should instead be grateful to be living in Malaysia.
“All the charges, it is because they want to criticise about religion, the royalty, why?
“Why wouldn’t you live happily, why are you disturbing others, why don’t you live happily in this country because you are rich because of this government,” he said
The minister was referring to local success stories like those of the late Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong, the man who transformed Genting Highlands into one of the most popular casino resorts in the region, and Tan Sri T. Ananda Krishnan, the tycoon whose estimated net worth is now at a staggering US$11.7 billion (RM37.4 billion).
Both men, Shahidan pointed out, had been helped by the Malaysian royalty and the government at a time when they were “nothing”.
What do you mean by free' speech
Shahidan’s Cabinet colleague, de facto law minister Nancy Shukri, agreed that free speech should not be left unchecked.
“Should the authorities not act, they too, would be seen as weak or even be accused of couldn’t care less of what happened around them.
“We cannot say that our country is becoming a police state because the relevant authorities have to take action when activities organized by the state created security suspicion to them,” she told Malay Mail Online recently.
“This is just my personal view when I saw increasing number of provocations which are made as they are waiting for response and god knows what is going to happen next,” she said in a series of text messages.
The minister said because Malaysia is a multiracial and multi-religious nation, citizens here should be “extra careful and cautious of what happens around us”.
“I feel that the authorities ought to act on such provocations and hope that no further provocations to race, religion and the rulers should recur if we want to live peacefully,” she said.
Putrajaya recently embarked on a sedition crackdown, hauling up at least 15 anti-government dissidents and opposition politicians under the colonial-era law in the space of one month.
The crackdown led to three opposition lawmakers being charged under the 1948 Act two weeks ago, including one for uttering the words “celaka Umno” in the Penang state assembly.
Among the latest targets to come under a sedition scope are news portal Malaysiakini and its journalist Susan Loone, over a report on a police crackdown on Penang’s state-endorsed volunteer patrol unit.
Last Tuesday, Azmi, who is a University of Malaya law lecturer, was charged in court with sedition for his recent remarks on the 2009 Perak crisis, making him the first academic to get snagged in the dragnet.
A day later, Sabah police confirmed that they have started a sedition probe on the owners of a Facebook page propagating the secession of Sabah and Sarawak from Malaysia.
Also in Sabah the same day, opposition politician David Orok claimed trial to a sedition charge for allegedly posting remarks insulting Prophet Muhammad and Islam on Facebook in July.
Last Friday, student activist Muhammad Safwan Anang was sentenced to 10 months’ jail after the Sessions Court here found him guilty of sedition.
On Monday, social activist Ali Abd Jalil became the fifth person to be charged with sedition in under a fortnight, after he claimed trial for posting remarks on Facebook that allegedly insulted the Johor royal house.
The sudden onslaught of sedition charges has also led to renewed calls for the repeal of the colonial-era Sedition Act, with politicians and activist groups taking up arms to mobilise nationwide campaigns in hopes of pressuring Putrajaya into fulfilling its 2012 pledge to do away with the law.
But critics believe the government is deliberately dithering on the promise due to pressure from strong right wing elements within Umno and its supporters, who want the Act to stay.
Defenders of the Sedition Act, primarily pro-establishment conservatives including former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, contend that its removal will open the floodgates of attacks against the Bumiputera, Islam, and the Malay rulers in the absence of the repealed Internal Security Act (ISA).
Those pushing for the law to be eliminated, however, insist that its ambit is too broad, as it criminalises speech with an undefined “seditious tendency” and without need to prove intent.  - Malay Mail

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