Statement by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjong, Lim Kit Siang

I am still waiting for the letter which the Deputy Information Minister has promised to give me to show that the present laws cover the issue of licences for the operation of ASTRO satellite broadcasting

During the winding-up of the debate on the second reading of the Broadcasting Amendment Bill in Parliament yesterday, the Deputy Minister for Information, Datuk Drs. Suleiman Mohamad said he would give me the letter which stated that the present laws cover the issue of licences for the operation of ASTRO satellite broadcasting.

He had initially said that he would give me the letter at the lobby of Parliament after the end of the debate on the Broadcasting Amendment Bill, but when I waited for him at the lobby, Suleiman said he forgot to take the letter out of the Chamber and would send it to me immediately.

I am still waiting for this letter which Sulaiman told Parliament is proof that ASTRO satellite broadcasting is legal.

Although Suleiman claims that licences had been issued respectively by the Minister for Information and the Minister for Energy, Telecommunications and Posts for MEASAT’s ASTRO channels under the Broadcasting Act 1988 and the Telecommunications Act 1950, he has not been able to convince MPs that the Minister for Information had such power as the Broadcasting Act 1988 had been silent on satellite broadcasting.

This is precisely the reason why the Broadcasting Amendment Bill had been presented to Parliament so as to give the Minister for Information the necessary powers to licence satellite broadcasting.

If the Minister for Information already has existing powers to license satellite broadcasting, then there is no need for the Broadcasting Amendment Bill at all.

Furthermore, until the Broadcasting Amendment Bill becomes law, the Minister for Information has no powers to licence parabolic antennae to receive satellite broadcasting transmissions.

The licensing of parabolic antennae was first legislated in the Telecommunications Amendment Act 1993, after the Ministry of Telecommunications found that it had no legal powers to act against the tens of thousands of parabolic antennae receiving satellite transmissions in Sarawak and Sabah.

This would mean that until the Broadcasting Amendment Bill becomes law, the ASTRO decoder antennae would have to be individually licensed by the Minister for Energy, Telecommunications and Post or they would be illegal. This has not been done.

For all the above reasons, ASTRO’s satellite broadcasting transmissions, whether television or radio, cannot be legal until the Broadcasting Amendment Bill 1996 had become law after receiving the Royal Assent and appearing in the gazette. This is why ASTRO should not collect monthly subscriptions of RM80 from November, as it would be tantamount to collecting fees for illegal antennaes receiving illegal satellite broadcasting!

(18/10/96)