Word on the street is that the Sedition Act is the new ISA as a tool to crack down on dissenting voices and silencing critics of the current government. The AG has been on overdrive handing out sedition charges the past months. Maybe it is a strong response towards Dr Ms critism of Najib’s leadership and in order to prove he is not weak, he resorted to strong arm methods to shut out Malaysian from speaking up about politics or social policies affecting us all. This strong-arm method was used against Teresa Kok for her Chinese New Year video which was merely a form of political satire, N. Surendran for claiming the Anwar sodomy trial is a political conspiracy and Khalid Samad calling for the review of the Enactment on Islamic Laws Administration (Enactment No. 3, 1952) and the Islamic Religion Administration Enactment 2003 to be reviewed.Recently, a student was also investigated for sedition for liking a Facebook page and today, Dr. Azmi Sharom, an academician, will be charged for sedition for giving his academic opinion on the Selangor MB crisis. Such occurrences are disturbing as they undermine the democracy and academic freedom in this country.* I have a strong opinion that a strong and confident government should always prepare to engage its citizens. The act of silencing mounting critical voices is downright counterproductive. Effective communication and engagement with civil societys concerns and dissents is always the way forward. However, silence from above is really deafening and when it comes to public dissent, silence is definitely not golden. The government instead of being fearful of dissent and resort to repression, they should instead recognise the value of dissent and critical discourse. Discussion and arguments are critically important for democracy and public reasoning. Voice is a crucial component of the pursuit of social justice and it should not be suppressed… P/s: Below are the allegedly seditious words of Prof Azmi. You decide yourself if it’s seditious or not.. *KPUM official statement on sedition
Posted on: Tue, 02 Sep 2014 08:10:21 +0000
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