Wednesday, May 07, 2008

point to ponder

Case on point:

Sedition Act 1948, Section 3(1) reads:

3. Seditious tendency.

(1) A "seditious tendency" is a tendency -

(a) to bring into hatred or contempt or to excite disaffection against any Ruler or against any Government;

(b) to excite the subjects of any Ruler or the inhabitants of any territory governed by any Government to attempt to procure in the territory of the Ruler or governed by the Government, the alteration, otherwise than by lawful means, of any matter as by law established;

(c) to bring into hatred or contempt or to excite disaffection against the administration of justice in Malaysia or in any State;

(d) to raise discontent or disaffection amongst the subjects of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong or of the Ruler of any State or amongst the inhabitants of Malaysia or of any State;

(e) to promote feelings of ill-will and hostility between different races or classes of the population of Malaysia; or

(f) to question any matter, right, status, position, privilege, sovereignty or prerogative established or protected by the provisions of Part III of the Federal Constitution or Article 152, 153 or 181 of the Federal Constitution.

Even as the Sedition Act serves to censure free speech, reading through the news today on RPK's arrest made me think that the charge against him is rather strange. The cause of action is in relation to the recent post by RPK implicating Najib and his wife, but not to the Ruler or any government forming the above section 3. I read RPK's post and I was thinking hard on which paragraph of his statement is a danger to the government?

Hm. The eager legal eagle in me would've thought when reading Najib's press secretary reply to RPK's that there will be legal redress, I honestly thought it will be a civil action, forming out of the RPK's defamatory statement.

How naive of me.

Let's see how it goes.
How lucky of you and me all you you you young people to live in such interesting times.

p/s:
just last weekend I went for the talk in conjunction with theWorld Free Press day. Oh well.

5 comments:

Anonymous,  7 May 2008 at 12:31:00 GMT+8  

oh oh
war against bloggers starts.
be careful now.

FadiahNadwa 7 May 2008 at 15:29:00 GMT+8  

it's bolehland every one, and in malaysiabolehland, the authority has the prerogative to do what they want, and that includes putting the wrong thing in the wrong place!

amicus curiae 7 May 2008 at 17:29:00 GMT+8  

bolehlanders @ Allah's land.
sape yg kena be careful sebenarnya....

Allahu biquwwati imaana..

Anonymous,  8 May 2008 at 22:08:00 GMT+8  

makes u wonder why there is such laws at all.draconian.

amicus curiae 9 May 2008 at 10:41:00 GMT+8  

draconian or not,it remains a law.problem is,imho,the whole thing is inappropriate.e.g karpal singh--with all his remarks and all v the sultans..apesal dia tak kena ape2 kan...cuba kalau dia buat remark against you-know-who...tak ke dia kena sama nasib mcm pete..

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