Nancy and SUPP president Senator Datuk Dr Sim Kui Hian (second left) welcome a lion dance performance at the party’s Chinese New Year open house.
KUCHING: The proposed amendment to the Sedition Act 1948 to include a provision against secession should not be aimed specifically at the people of Sabah and Sarawak but should apply to all states.
In saying this, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Nancy Shukri argued that it would be unfair if the proposed new clause prohibiting calls for secession were to be applied to Sabah and Sarawak only because talks of pulling out of Malaysia could happen anywhere in the country.
The de-facto law minister pointed out she strongly objected to the proposed amendment when it was recently discussed in the Cabinet.
“I do not agree that the amendment is only aimed at Sabah and Sarawak. When you want to amend the law, you have to consider that this can also happen in any other state. We need to take consideration of all the states in the country. It is not about Sabah and Sarawak only,” she told reporters when met at SUPP Chinese New Year open house at the party’s headquarters here on Thursday.
Nancy was confident that the Bill would be ready for tabling in the Parliamentary meeting next month.
A provision will be inserted to make it an offence for anyone talking about pulling any state out of Malaysia.
The amendment will also strengthen provisions against those raising sensitive issues such as on race and religion or create ill-feelings among the people.
“There is not much amendment by the Attorney-General. We are still fine tuning, to strengthen it,” she continued.
At the opening of the Umno general assembly last year, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak announced that the scope of the Act would be widened to include prohibiting calls for secession of the state or neighbouring Sabah from the nation and also inserting a provision to protect the sanctity of Islam.
Talk of secession gained traction last year, when groups from various online social media organised themselves, operating under a platform called ‘Sabah Sarawak Keluar Malaysia’ (SSKM).
Those supporting the movement had called for a review of the Malaysia Agreement 1963 which saw The Federation of Malaya, Singapore, Sarawak, North Borneo (Sabah) forming one nation as equal partners.
Last September, Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid
Hamidi issued a warning to groups calling for secession of Sabah and Sarawak from the Federation, threatening them with legal actions.
He argued that Sabah and Sarawak were very much a part of the country and that questions of neo-colonialism did not arise at all.
He reminded that the referendum conducted by the Cobbold Commission prior to the formation of Malaysia was endorsed by the United Nations and was still in force.
In Tuaran, nine people were briefly arrested earlier this month for handing out allegedly seditious pamphlets and mounting a signature campaign pushing for Sabah’s rights.
Police confirmed that the case was investigated under Section 4(1) of the Sedition Act for printing, publishing, selling (or offering for sale), distribution, reproduction or importation of seditious materials.