Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR: The government yesterday made some changes in the proposed amendments to the Sedition Act 1948 following criticism from many quarters, including both the Barisan Nasional (BN) and Pakatan Rakyat coalitions.

One of the changes included the removal of the non-bailable clause, which critics said would give too much power to the police and undermine the rule of law in the country.

Putrajaya, in a bid to “strengthen” the Sedition Act, on Tuesday tabled a bill to amend the colonial-era law which includes a provision where bail could be denied to those charged under the act.

Earlier, reports said the proposed amendments would include two new sections: 5A and 5B.

Section 5A states that for a person charged under Subsection 4(1)(a), if there is a certificate in writing by the public prosecutor stating that it is not in the public interest to grant bail to the accused, no bail will be granted.

This section has now been taken out. Following this, the section that was previously noted as Section 5B, on the surrendering of travel documents to the court, has been repositioned as Section 5A.

The section states that the court will have the power to prevent those charged under the act and released on bail from leaving the country by ordering them to surrender their travel documents for a certain period.

Putrajaya was also set to reduce the minimum sentence of imprisonment from five to three years, for offences under the new subsection dealing with seditious remarks that can lead to bodily injury or property damage.

With the amendment, Putrajaya said importing seditious publications is no longer considered an offence and would “preserve the discretion of the court whether to grant bail for sedition offences”.

Members of parliament from both BN and Pakatan have criticised the proposed amendments, which, they described as alarming and draconian. — The Malaysian Insider

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on April 10, 2015.

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