Late in the evening of 9 April 2015, 108 Members of Parliament (MPs) voted in favour of amendments to the Sedition Act 1948 against 79 MPs who voted against. The 108 MPs voted blindly for the amendments despite the vociferous protests from MPs, lawyers, civil society activists and ordinary Malaysians within and without the Parliament.
The new amendments will effectively granting wider jurisdiction to the authorities to take action on speech or activities that are seen as seditious in nature. The Bill also added a new section that imposes a penalty of between five and 20 years jail for sedition crimes that cause bodily harm or property damage, while it increases the jail term for general sedition crimes to between three and seven years.
Prior to the amendments, the colonial era law imposed a maximum three-year jail term or maximum RM5,000 fine on first time offenders, and a maximum five-year jail term for repeat offenders.
The Government and the Royal Malaysian Police have widely abused even the existing Sedition Act in recent months as up to 150 opposition leaders and activists, academics and journalists, as well as ordinary Malaysians have been hauled up. There are hence valid fears that the strengthening of the draconian act was targetting at a further crackdown against dissent against a weak Barisan Nasional government.
The Minister of Home Affairs, Dato’ Seri Zahid Hamidi, repeatedly and blatantly ignored the justified protests by MPs during the debate, including motions to amend the amendments, with the single sentence “Tuan Pengerusi, saya tidak berhajat untuk memberikan sebarang ulasan”, in order to expedite the rubber-stamping of the proposed amendments.
We call upon all Malaysians who are disgusted with the behaviour of the BN Government who treated the legislative arm with complete and utter contempt to make their protest heard. The most effective way is to identify the MPs who had voted for the Bill and organise a campaign against them. In particular, Malaysians should target the MPs who voted for the Bill in constituencies where they won with razor thin majorities. This list has been published by Malaysiakini.com yesterday.
There are 11 constituencies belonging to MPs who voted in favour, which were won with majorities of less than 1,000 votes. A concerted campaign by voters in these constituencies over the next 2-3 years will see these MPs deposed for betraying the democratic rights of Malaysians.
They are Baram – Anyi Ngau (194 vote majority), Telok Intan – Mah Siew Keong (238), Labis – Chua Tee Yong (353), Bentong – Liow Tiong Lai (379), Sungai Besar – Noriah Kasnon (399), Kuala Selangor – Irmohizam Ibrahim (460), Beaufort – Azizah Mohd Dun (672), Machang – Ahmad Jazlan Yaakub (805), Titiwangsa – Johari Abdul Ghani (806), Pasir Gudang – Normala Abdul Samad (935) and Ketereh – Annuar Musa (974).
Another 8 MPs won with a majority of less than 2,000 votes. With the right amount of effort, there is a more than realistic chance of replacing them in the next general election.
They are Kuala Kangsar – Wan Mohammad Khair-il Anuar Wan Ahmad (1,082), Bagan Serai – Noor Azmi Ghazali (1,140), Arau – Shahidan Kassim (1,371), Setiawangsa – Ahmad Fauzi Zahari (1,392), Balik Pulau – Hilmi Yahaya (1,539), Tebrau – Khoo Soo Seang (1,767), Kulim Bandar Baru – Abd Aziz Sheikh Fadzir (1,871) and Sabak Bernam – Mohd Fasiah Mohd Fakeh (1,890).
In addition, another 4 MPs won with majorities of more than 2,000 but would have lost if not for 3 or 4 corner fights in their constituencies. They are Pensiangan – Joseph Kurup, Mas Gading – Nogeh Gumbek, Ranau – Ewon Ebin and Tenom – Raime Unggi.
These are the 23 MPs in marginal seats who voted in blindly in favour of the draconian amendments to the Sedition Act. The effort to remove them from Parliament in the next general election starts from today.
Ordinary voters of these constituencies can write to their respective MPs to demand that they explain why they had allowed such undemocratic and unjust laws to be passed in the Malaysian parliament. Let them know that you will be taking concrete actions to campaign, inform and persuade your fellow voters to vote against them in the next general election.
It doesn’t take much. A 1,000 vote swing in each of these constituencies will see all of the above 23 seats in question fall. That’s just 1 vote to switch everyday for the next 3 years in each seat. That, with a handful of other seats, will be enough to confine Barisan Nasional to the opposition bench for the first time in Malaysian history.