Dato’ Sri Mohammed Najib bin Tun Abdul Razak Prime Minister of Malaysia Office of the Prime Minister Main Block, Perdana Putra Building Federal Government Administrative Centre 62502 Putrajaya, MALAYSIA Via facsimile: +60-3-8888-3444 11 September 2014 Malaysian government must stop ongoing crackdown and honour its pledge to repeal the Sedition Act Mr. Prime Minister, We, the undersigned civil society organisations across Asia, write to you to register our serious concern over the Malaysian government’s ongoing wave of arrests, interrogations, and charges against individuals under the Sedition Act 1948. No less than 14 individuals are currently facing charges under the Sedition Act, in addition to 6 others who are being investigated under the Act. (The list of these individuals are annexed to this letter.) The latest of these include Susan Loone, a Malaysiakini journalist, who was arrested and interrogated on 3 September 2014 under the Sedition Act over a news article she authored. Earlier, on 2 September 2014, Azmi Sharom, an associate professor of law at the University of Malaya, was charged under the Act over a recent legal opinion he made on a political and constitutional crisis that occurred in 2009 in the state of Perak. Most recently, on 8 September 2014, Ali Abdul Jalil, a social activist, was charged on three different counts under the Sedition Act on the very same day. The past week also saw the conviction Safwan Anang, former chairperson of the Solidarity Mahasiswa Malaysia (SMM), who on 5 September 2014 was sentenced to 10 months in prison under Section 4(1)(b) of the Sedition Act for allegedly urging the public to topple the government. We are alarmed that the Sedition Act, an archaic piece of legislation that was originally used to suppress dissent during the colonial era, is not only still in place in Malaysia, but is now being used indiscriminately by the current Malaysian government to stifle democratic space in the country. Under the vague and overbroad provisions of the Sedition Act, almost any kind of speech may be criminalised, making it open to blatant abuses by the government. Such a repressive law certainly has no place in any modern democratic society. Mr. Prime Minister, We recall the pledges that you made on 11 July 2012, and again 3 July 2013, to abolish the Sedition Act. In addition to these pledges, you also just days ago further reaffirmed the same as recent as 5 September 2014. We certainly welcome these statements of commitment to abolish the Sedition Act, which demonstrate your acknowledgement of the problematic nature of the law. However, these statements have remained empty pledges. More alarmingly, the government has not only failed to deliver on its pledges to repeal the Act, but has in fact increased the use of the law. We thus echo the overwhelming calls made by both the international community and Malaysians, including 128 Malaysian civil society groups, for the repeal of the Sedition Act. We further urge your government to end the current wave of crackdown by dropping all pending charges under the Sedition Act and cease the pursuance of cases that are being investigated under the Act. The repeal of the Sedition Act must be treated as a matter of top priority by your government. In the meantime, a moratorium on the use of the Act must be observed to demonstrate its sincerity in honouring its pledges and to prove its commitment towards democratic principles. We thank you for your attention. Signed by: Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA) Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK) Bangladesh Alternative ASEAN Network on Burma (Altsean-Burma) Association of Human Rights Defenders and Promoters (HRDP) Burma Banglar Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha (MASUM) Bangladesh Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights (LICADHO) Cambodia Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association (ADHOC) Cambodia Centre for Human Rights and Development (CHRD) Mongolia Commission of the Disappearances and Victims of Violence (KontraS) Indonesia Commonwealth Human Right Initiative ELD Training Nepal Globe International Center (GIC) Mongolia Human Rights Ambassador for Salem-News United Kingdom Indonesian Human Rights Monitor (Imparsial) Indonesia Indonesia Legal Aid Foundation (Yayasan Lembaga Bantuan Hukum Indonesia/YLBHI) Indonesia Informal Sector Service Center (INSEC) Nepal INFORM Human Rights Documentation Centre Sri Lanka Korean House for International Solidarity (KHIS) South Korea Law and Society Trust (LST) Sri Lanka Law, Basic Rights and Justice Foundation (HAK Association) Timor Leste Maldivian Democracy Network Maldives Migrant Forum in Asia People’s Empowerment Foundation (PEF) Thailand People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (PSPD) South Korea People’s Vigilance Committee on Human Rights (PVCHR) India People’s Watch India Pergerakan Indonesia Solidarity for Asians’ People Advocacies (SAPA) Working Group on ASEAN Southeast Asian Committee for Advocacy (SEACA) Southeast Asia Press Alliance (SEAPA) Suara Rakyat Malaysia (SUARAM) Malaysia Taiwan Association for Human Rights Taiwan Think Centre Singapore
Posted on: Fri, 12 Sep 2014 06:02:01 +0000
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