Press Statement by M Kula Segaran, DAP National Vice
Chairman and MP for Ipoh Barat in Ipoh on 17th October, 2014
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Repeal of Sedition Act: Khairy Jamaluddin is a big disappointment
Yesterday, I had participated in the lawyers walk from Padang Merbok to the Malaysian Parliament to protest against the Sedition Act and demand that the Prime Minister fulil his pledge to repeal the draconian Act.
I must commend the Bar Council Chairman Christopher Leong for his great speech at Padang Merbok. Christoper subsequently met MP’s and Minister Mah Siew Keong in Parliament House. He handed over a memorandum for the abolishment of the Sedition Act to Mah to be handed over to the PM.
Former Bar president Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan has commented to the media that she was encouraged by the international support the initiative had received.
She has said:-
“With the event today being observed by foreign bar councils, including from Australia and Japan, the activist said that when the rule of law was being infringed, lawyers from all over the world came together.
Above everything else, Ambiga said, when lawyers walked against injustice, it meant something was really wrong.”
Indeed, there is something very wrong now when not only the government has not fulfilled its promise to repeal the Sedition Act, there is also a blitz targeted at government critics.
Yet, the Oxford trained Minister of Sports and Youth Datuk Khairy Jamaluddin has failed to see or has chosen not to see that there is indeed something very wrong.
Yesterday, he had belittled the walk, saying that Malaysians want the draconian Act to stay.
It was reported that he described the Bar Council's walk as having “not made an impact".
“The larger subtext is, the abolish Sedition Act movement has failed to catch on because it does not offer Malaysians safeguards against offensive speech,” he said in his tweets.
It is obvious that Khairy does not know or pretends he does not know that we have enough laws to deal with offensive and hate speeches. If he does not know about laws, he should ask from lawyers and not talk so much as if he is an expert on laws.
Sedition Act has outlived its usefulness. It’s a colonial “cancer” gift to Malaya then.. Its continuous usage and reliance by the Government shows how desperate the powers that be who wants to silence the people.
Sedition Act must go because it is a useful political weapon for the government to use to stifle freedom of speech and target government critics.
Repeal of Sedition Act: Khairy Jamaluddin is a big disappointment
Yesterday, I had participated in the lawyers walk from Padang Merbok to the Malaysian Parliament to protest against the Sedition Act and demand that the Prime Minister fulil his pledge to repeal the draconian Act.
I must commend the Bar Council Chairman Christopher Leong for his great speech at Padang Merbok. Christoper subsequently met MP’s and Minister Mah Siew Keong in Parliament House. He handed over a memorandum for the abolishment of the Sedition Act to Mah to be handed over to the PM.
Former Bar president Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan has commented to the media that she was encouraged by the international support the initiative had received.
She has said:-
“With the event today being observed by foreign bar councils, including from Australia and Japan, the activist said that when the rule of law was being infringed, lawyers from all over the world came together.
Above everything else, Ambiga said, when lawyers walked against injustice, it meant something was really wrong.”
Indeed, there is something very wrong now when not only the government has not fulfilled its promise to repeal the Sedition Act, there is also a blitz targeted at government critics.
Yet, the Oxford trained Minister of Sports and Youth Datuk Khairy Jamaluddin has failed to see or has chosen not to see that there is indeed something very wrong.
Yesterday, he had belittled the walk, saying that Malaysians want the draconian Act to stay.
It was reported that he described the Bar Council's walk as having “not made an impact".
“The larger subtext is, the abolish Sedition Act movement has failed to catch on because it does not offer Malaysians safeguards against offensive speech,” he said in his tweets.
It is obvious that Khairy does not know or pretends he does not know that we have enough laws to deal with offensive and hate speeches. If he does not know about laws, he should ask from lawyers and not talk so much as if he is an expert on laws.
Sedition Act has outlived its usefulness. It’s a colonial “cancer” gift to Malaya then.. Its continuous usage and reliance by the Government shows how desperate the powers that be who wants to silence the people.
Sedition Act must go because it is a useful political weapon for the government to use to stifle freedom of speech and target government critics.
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