Voon Lee Shan
KUCHING: The Pakatan Harapan (PH) government is making another U-turn against the promises made in their election manifesto by repealing and replacing the Sedition Act 1948, said Parti Bumi Kenyalang president Voon Lee Shan.
“It should be unconstitutional and it is also against the international norm to restrict a person to speak,” said Voon at a press conference held at his legal firm office at Jalan Stutong here today.
According to local news outlets, Prime Minister Dr Mahatir Mohamad had confirmed on July 11 at a press conference in Parliament that the government would repeal the controversial colonial-era act before replacing it with a new law.
Voon said that Democratic Action Party (DAP), being a coalition party of the federal government, should oppose the measure as it transgressed the freedom of speech of the people.
Besides the Sedition Act 1948, Voon pointed out that there are other existing laws such as Defamation Act 1957 and Penal Code that would have landed a person in court for making defamatory statements.
He claimed that since the Sedition Act 1948 could only be applied to the citizens of a country, it should not be applicable to people of Sabah and Sarawak since Malaysia is only a federation.
“By looking into another law to replace the Sedition Act, it clearly shows that the federal government is aware that the Sedition Act 1948 is not applicable to the people of Sabah and Sarawak.”
He also questioned the legality of the formation of Malaysia which would in turn resulted in the laws passed by Parliament such as the Sedition Act 1948 being not applicable to Sabah and Sarawak.