(Petaling Jaya, Wednesday): The
Ketari by-election will be the last election campaign to raise issues like the
Damansara Chinese primary schools, Vision Schools, “ultimate objective” of
national education policy and mother-tongue education as the Election Offences
Amendment Bill presented for passage
by the current meeting of Parliament will make raising of these issues in future
elections “super sedition” offences.
The
Election Offences Amendment Bill is creating a new offence and the explanation
by the Bill’s explanatory
statement is most misleading when it claimed that
the introduction of a new section 4A “is essentially a restatement of
the provisions of paragraph 3(1)(e) of the Sedition Act 1948, incorporated with
a view to preserving racial unity, etc. by prohibiting categorically any person
from doing any act or making any statement which may create ill-will, discontent
or hostility amongst the population of Malaysia in his endeavours to procure the
election of any person”.
The
new offence proposed under the Election Offences Amendment Bill is wider
in scope and entails more severe sanctions than the original sedition offence,
making it a “super sedition” offence designed to paralyse the Opposition in
election campaigns by criminalising
Opposition electioneering activities
- as it is clear from the history of selective prosecution of Opposition
leaders that such “super sedition” offences would only be used against the
Opposition and never against the Barisan Nasional politicians.
The
proposed new “super sedition” offence under the Election Offences Amendment
Bill 2002 reads:
“Offences
of promoting feelings of ill-will or hostility
“4A.
(1) Any person who, before, during or after an election, directly or indirectly,
by himself or by any other person on his behalf, does any act or makes any
statement with a view or with a tendency to promote feelings of ill-will,
discontent or hostility between persons of the same race or different races or
of the same class or different classes of the population of Malaysia in order to
induce any elector or voter to vote or refrain from voting at an election or to
procure or endeavour to procure the election of any person shall be liable, on
conviction, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or to a fine not
exceeding ten thousand ringgit or to both such imprisonment or fine.
(2)
Subject to any specific provision to the contrary in any written law relating to
an election, any person who is convicted of an offence under this section shall,
until the expiration of five years from such conviction, be incapable of being
registered or listed as an elector or of voting at an election or of being
elected at an election, and if at that date he has been elected at an election,
his seat shall be vacated from the date of such conviction.”
If
the new section 4A is
“essentially a restatement” of paragraph 3(1)(e) of the Sedition Act 1948,
what is the need for the creation of a new offence when there is already the
Sedition Act to deal with such offences.
But
this is more than a restatement for what we have is a “super sedition”
offence meant to cripple free and fair election campaigning by the Opposition in
general elections and by-elections.
Firstly,
the “restatement” has broadened the scope of paragraph 3(1)(e) of the
Sedition Act 1948, which defines a “seditious tendency” as a tendency “to
promote feelings of ill-will and hostility between different races or classes of
the population of Malaysia”. The “super sedition” offence in the Election
Offences Act is not confined to promoting feelings of ill-will and hostility
“between different races or classes” but also between “persons of the same
race” and “of the same class”.
Secondly,
the definition of the “super sedition” offence is so wide that it could
cover all criticisms against the government party and candidate, whether on
political, economic, educational, social, cultural or legal grounds or questions
- and this is why I say that when this Bill
is enacted into law in the
present Parliamentary meeting, the Ketari by-election will be the last election
campaign to raise issues like the Damansara Chinese primary schools, Vision
Schools, “ultimate objective” of national education policy and mother-tongue
education.
In
fact, in future election campaigns, Opposition attacks on the catalogues of
abuses, excesses and corruption of
power by the government party, such as the
scandals involving Time dotCom, MAS,
Renong-UEM, Indah Water Konsortium, Perwaja,
the Tabung Haji or the lowest EPF dividend of 5% in 38 years could be
roped in under the “super sedition” offence as having “a tendency to
promote feelings of ill-will, discontent or hostility between persons of the
same race or different races or of the same class or different classes of the
population of Malaysia” to influence the voter - as the truth of the
Opposition attacks and allegations would constitute no defence against the
charge of “super sedition”.
Thirdly,
the “super sedition” offence in the Election Offences Bill imposes heavier
penalties than the Sedition Act,
which provides for a maximum fine of RM5,000 or three years’ jail for the
first offender. The “super
sedition” offence in the Election Offences Bill, however, carries a maximum
RM10,000 fine or five years’ jail term as well as disqualification of a
citizen’s civil and political rights to hold elective office, whether as MP or
Assemblyman, or even to be a voter for
five years.
The
Election Offences Amendment Bill and the Elections Amendment Bill which were
both tabled in Parliament in the past week are grave threats to a healthy and
vibrant democratic system based on a free, fair and clean elections.
Both generally
institutionalise and legalise the Barisan Nasional electoral abuses and
malpractices, particularly money politics, and criminalise free and fair
election campaigning by the Opposition.
The voters of Ketari must speak up loud and clear against the Election Offences Amendment Bill and the Elections Amendment Bill in the by-election on Sunday and demand that these two bills should be referred to an All-Party Election Laws Review Committee to restore public confidence in the conduct of free, fair and clean elections in Malaysia.
(27/3/2002)