Press
Statement by M Kula Segaran, DAP National Vice Chairman and MP for Ipoh Barat
in Ipoh on September 5, 2014
Prime Minister must fulfil his 2012
promise to repeal the Sedition Act
Many right thinking Malaysians ,
shocked and infuriated by the recent widening of the sedition net to stifle
freedom of expression , are demanding the Prime Minister to fulfil his 2012
promise to repeal the draconian Sedition Act.
As expected, Datuk Seri Najib has
chosen to remain silent.
However, Minister in the Prime
Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim has come out to claim that
Putrajaya never promised to abolish the Sedition Act but only to review it.
What Shahidan said is most shocking as
Najib had gone on record two years ago to say that the Act will be repealed and
replaced with a new National Harmony Act.
Since the 2012 promise, there have
been countless statements by opposition lawmakers and NGOs reminding the Prime
Minister to make good his promise.
If Najib did not make a promise or
had been misquoted, he could have denied or clarified over the last two years,
but he did not make any denial or clarification.
Hence, what Shahidan has just said
is pure nonsense.
What he said, unless immediately
rebutted by the Prime Minister, must not be viewed lightly.
Malaysians who are worried that
Malaysia may become a police state must ask if what Shahidan said is a tactic
to test the water so that the BN government can renege on its promise to repeal
the archaic Act.
It is time that citizens, political
parties, NGOs which cherish freedom of expression must speak up and unite
together to fight for the repeal of the Act.
A strong and clear message must be
sent to the Prime Minister that a promise is a promise and he must fulfil his
2012 promise. He has no other option.
In the coming parliamentary meeting
session, I will ask the Prime Minister to state on parliamentary record if he
will fulfil his promise as a Prime minister ought to do.
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