ADVANTAGES OF SEDITION ACT

2.0 WHY MALAYSIAN NEED SEDITION ACTS? :

To curb elements that caused disunity.
“The Act is still relevant and necessary to curb the action of some people who are out to create chaos and disunity among society. Keeping the act is not for the interest of certain parties including BN but it would be able to prevent some people from playing up issues on religion, race and the institution of Malay rulers,” said Selangor opposition leader Datuk Mohd Shamsuddin Lias in a meeting at the lobby of the Selangor State Assembly on 28 November 2014 ( theborneopost, 2014). In conjunction with the role of Malaysia as a famous multiracial country that made up of three major races and many more ethnics. In measure to create a cohesive society, sedition act is very important to limit the freedom of speech by every individual especially on sensitive issues about any races in Malaysia. In general, all of Malaysian races have their own religion, culture, celebrations and also language. Thus, all Malaysian who practice different lifestyles in many aspects were still staying in peace and harmony in Malaysia now a day is because the practiced of sedition act by Malaysian government. The sedition act help to keep peace among the people because those who are trying instigated others people about the differences between multiracial citizens just to create chaos in country will be fine with sedition act. Thus, the Sedition Act helped a lot in other to curb any elements that may cause disunity in Malaysia.

To control the freedom of expression by lawmakers.
Although Malaysia was a country that practice democracy, but the freedom of speech by every lawmaker was still need to be monitored by the Sedition Act. This is very important because the uncensored speech by the lawmakers can lead to the misunderstanding and more series is also to resulting in fights between the politicians. This is very important to be pay attention because there are many political parties in Malaysia that have their own ideology. As a lawmakers who are trusted by the citizens, they must always control what they are going to talk specially to avoid the seditious elements that will influence the citizen’s loyalty to country or also citizen’s solidarity .So, sedition act in Malaysia play an important role to control the freedom of expression by lawmakers and to make them obey to the act same as the ordinary citizen as fairness for all Malaysian. Thus, with the sedition act there will be a limit for the lawmaker especially in their speech to avoid seditious elements.

To protect the four items in Malaysian Constitution.
Constitution - system of laws and principles according to which a state is governed (Oxford Compact Advanced Learner’s English-Malay Dictionary, 2007). As a Malaysian, we must obey by the items in the Malaysian Constitution. In Malaysia, there are four items that can be protected by sedition act like Islam as the religion of the federation, Malay language as the official language, position of the Malay Rulers and the special privileges of Malays people. Sedition is also important in this case because those who dispute about the four items may be fine under the Sedition Act. This is because the four items in Malaysian Constitution was written since 1957 the independence years of Malaysia that the new generation today must respect and have no right to complaints or also not to raises incitement on those four items. The Sedition Act is very useful to avoid any seditious elements about the four items and to protect the four items in Malaysian Constitution in other to preserving the sovereignty of the Malaysian constitutions.

To maintain the relationship between the states that made up the federation or Malaysia.
Malaysia consists of thirteen states and three federal territories to form a nation called Malaysia. Besides, Malaysia also consists of peninsula and Sabah and Sarawak. Each state is headed by a Member of the Legislative Assembly that had a relation with the federal government in administering their state. In others to form a great Malaysia, the relationship between peninsular and Sabah and Sarawak was very important. So, the relationships that free from any incitement elements with create a unity that later on will lead to the development of both state and country like the collaboration of Sabah Sarawak states government with the central government in peninsula will help to developed Malaysia in many fields. For those who have the intention to spreading seditious elements must be penalty by the authority appropriately because their irresponsible action will lead to the misunderstanding between state governments and federal government. This can be seen and used as lessons by the latest issues like Sabah and Sarawak want to be out from Malaysia. There are various assumptions about the appearance of the issue and this lead to unease between the head of the state and the federal government and also misunderstanding among the citizens. So, the authorities must take an effective action base on Sedition Act to find out the resource of the statement and punish those who are involved in the issues.

Why Sedition Acts considered as an act that should be abolished?

Allegations from some party that the government does selective claimed.
Some of the parties in Malaysia think that Malaysian governments are not fair in implementing the Sedition Act. The speculations are posed because the defenders and prosecutors are from the difference political parties in Malaysia. This situation usually happen when the individual who are convicted are from others party that are not from the government while the individual who win the case are government supporter. This condition maybe was one of the reasons for the raised of the allegations from some party that the government do selective claimed. Thus, this cause the citizens think that in implementing the law, the government must avoid the selective prosecution or government will be force to exterminate the sedition act because of the weaknesses in the act. For example, “The Sedition Act 1948 is not a political tool. It’s alright to criticize the government. There is no criticism against the government that we can charge under the Sedition Act, but if there are actions that go overboard, that insult the religion or race, then those acts are seditious. “The Sedition Act is not to protect any political party, but a shield for every Malaysian,” said by Khairy Jamaluddin at a media conference (themalaysiantimes, 2014). But, the difference of participant in difference political parties by citizens will still cause them to think government are not fair in implementing the sedition act.

This Act is not enacted by the Malaysian Parliament for Malaysians claim.
The Sedition Act was drafted and passed into law by the British in the British Parliament nine years before Malaysia (Malaya) independence. Some party in Malaysia says that Sedition Act is a cruel act that should not be amended but must be abolished. This statement raised because they think that citizens are not want the sedition act to be adopted in Malaysia but force to obey to the rule that are not enacted in Malaysia by demands of Malaysia citizens. Next, they also think that Sedition Act 1948 came into effect on Malaysian independence until now as a legacy of British colonial rule, despite more than half a century of our homeland free from the shackles of colonialism. This opinion was strengthen by the statement by the late DAP chairman and renowned lawyer, Karpal Singh says the law is a British colonial legacy which should be thrown into the trash bin. He also said the Sedition Act has had outlived its purpose as it was legislated by the British to quell the opposition against the formation of Malayan Union and he also think that the Sedition Act 1948, is a British colonial legacy that should be thrown into the trash bin of history (freemalaysiatoday, 2013). Besides Karpal Singh with his opinion, there are also many citizens that want to exterminate the sedition act because they think that Malaysia now was a country that had independence from colonialism and not supposed to obey by the act anymore.

Perspective that sedition act is filled with stories of power manipulation.
Manipulation of power in this meaning is that the government's abuse of power by this act. Some parties think that government used their power through this Sedition Act to detain individuals who are not aligned with them. They have a speculation that government can use sedition act to fine anybody without thinking the logically. This weakness of Sedition Act was also making the certain parties think that the manipulation of power by government is for the purpose of intimidation. In this condition, sedition act was considered by some party as a way for government to intimidate those party who are opposite with their party or to threatened them not to try to spreading any news whenever it was true or not. Thus, some parties think that governments use the sedition act as a way for them to protect the interests of their political party. So, the perspective from people that this act is filled with stories of manipulation of power was also one of the weaknesses for sedition act in Malaysia.
Sedition Act was considered as a draconian law.
Another weakness of sedition act is it was defined as undemocratic and restricts freedom of expression of Malaysians. This perception was made by the Bar Council and they have their own stance that it is appropriate to repeal the Sedition Act. In this case, National Young Lawyers Committee under the auspices of the Bar Council has launched a campaign ‘Mansuh Akta Hasutan on 4 September’, to make sure the extermination of Sedition Act. The campaign was carry out to overcome the Sedition’s Act by eliminate the act. Besides, similar to the Internal Security Act (ISA), the Sedition Act has been seen as a draconian law made to deal with the opposition and dissidents. It is against the principles of democracy and human rights (themalaysianinsider, 2012. The great resistance against Sedition Act in this factor show that many of citizen’s think that the Sedition Act was draconian which is excessively harsh and severe to the citizens. Therefore, one of the weaknesses of Sedition Act in Malaysia was because the Sedition Act was considered as a draconian law.