The national unity body has blasted critics of its proposed harmony bills, including former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Muslim groups, insisting that the new laws were needed to deal with racial issues, such as hate speech and hate crime. Datuk Dr Mujahid Yusof Rawa, who heads the National Unity Consultative Council’s (NUCC) working committee on law and policy, said detractors of the proposed replacement laws would realise the need to replace the archaic 1948 sedition law if they studied the three proposed bills carefully. As far as the harmony bills are concerned, they address hate speech and hate crimes which must include intent and physical action to be prosecuted, so as to protect freedom of expression as well, he said. The present law is just based on sedition and the Penal Code, which are limited forms of laws. “It does not address the racial issues prevalent now. Those who say they dont want the laws have to read them and give them a chance first, and they will see that we need them to replace the colonial Sedition Act, he told The Malaysian Insider. The council has received a barrage of criticism over the three bills it has proposed to replace the draconian Sedition Act, namely the Racial and Religious Hate Crimes Bill, the National Harmony and Reconciliation Bill and the National Harmony and Reconciliation Commission Bill. Some, while lauding the repeal of the Sedition Act, have questioned the need for another set of laws to replace it, while others have asked Putrajaya to shelve the three harmony bills, which include punitive action and mediation to solve issues, and to retain the Sedition Act. Mujahid said the council was determined to see the new bills through but welcomed feedback on how to improve the proposed laws, adding that the NUCC has held several forums with the public on these bills as it wanted to be transparent. The PAS politician also addressed Dr Mahathir’s concerns that the proposed laws would cause inequality among Malaysia’s three major ethnic communities. Dr Mahathir had said the unity bills would erase all remaining efforts to balance the economic standing between the communities through the New Economic Policy (NEP) because they would end discrimination based on ethnicity and introduce the principle of meritocracy in giving out government contracts, jobs and university scholarships. To this, Mujahid said the bills stated that affirmative action, such as the NEP, was not discriminatory. And we have also clearly mentioned that the new laws will not interfere with Article 3 of the Federal Constitution, which states that Islam is the official religion of the federation and other sections which talk about the rights of the Malays and the rulers,” he added. Exasperated by the attacks from Muslim groups which claimed the bills were drafted to uphold the “liberal-secular” conventions of human rights and drafted by those who were anti-Malay and anti-Islam, Mujahid countered by pointing out that he was himself an Islamic scholar. I dont know what is Islamic to them. I am an Islamic scholar. They are saying that they can condemn other religions but the same cannot be done to them. That is not Islamic, he said. The bills, he noted, are very Islamic as all stipulations in them were based on the teachings of the Quran. For example, you have the verses of the Quran which state that God prohibits a Muslim from condemning or cursing other Gods than what you believe in. So what is not Islamic about that? The Quran also tells Muslims not to undermine other nations or other tribes, or look down upon them as those whom you look down upon could be better than you, said Mujahid, who is also chairman of the PAS National Unity Bureau. A coalition of Muslim NGOs – Pertubuhan Pembela-Pembela Islam (Pembela) – had said that the draft bills appeared to seek absolute equality and disregarded the principle of positive discrimination and Article 3 of the Constitution. He, however, added that it was beyond the NUCCs powers to resolve issues like selective prosecution, which some critics of the unity bills have claimed was the root problem of hate crimes in the country. Whatever we do in the commission is solely based on the contents of the law. The issue of selective prosecution and manipulation is beyond our powers and lies with the attorney-general and of course, the political hand behind it. But that does not mean we dont need the new laws as there are elements in this country who have no clear thinking of what it takes to have harmony so we need to have them to punish such people, Mujahid added. – June 24, 2014.
Posted on: Tue, 24 Jun 2014 02:22:12 +0000
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