KUALA LUMPUR: After the Raja Permaisuri Agong Tunku Hajah Azizah Aminah Maimunah Iskandariah, the NGOs and a Member of Parliament too voiced their distress on the arrest of individuals for making allegedly offensive posts over the social media.
Iskandar Puteri MP Lim Kit Siang in commending Tunku Azizah’s remarks today urged the authorities to release Parti Sosialis Malaysia’s (PSM) activist Khalid Ismath and others currently detained under the Sedition Act 1948, calling the arrests “indefensible”.
Khalid, 29, was arrested around 10.30pm on Friday (Sept 13) at his home in Klang by three officers from the D5 unit in Bukit Aman under Section 4(1)(b) for allegedly posting a seditious tweet aimed at Tunku Azizah.
“All police and civil service personnel should familiarise themselves with the PH 14th GE manifesto to know the spirit, philosophy and direction of the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government even though laws and policies have not yet been changed, so that they would not act in open opposition of the PH pledge for a New Malaysia,” said the DAP Supremo in a statement here today.
Meanwhile, Lawyers of Liberty viewed with extreme concern the recent surge on online policing of social media posts that touched on sensitive issues such as race, religion and royalty with another four individuals arrested on Sept 11 for making such posts.
“These arrests are a serious assault on our freedom of speech which is guaranteed under Article 10 of the Federal Constitution,” it said in a statement issued today adding that problem was compounded by the fact the current laws and restrictions on free speech were not clearly defined.
“The law should not be invoked merely to protect people’s feelings and sensitivities against social media as it is not only an abuse of power but also there would be no end to the number of such cases.
“Instead, non-legal solutions, such as educating society on proper social media boundaries and raising awareness about cyberbullying, would be more appropriate,” said the statement adding that the authorities should cease all unnecessary investigations and arrests relating to social media posts.
In a separate statement, Amnesty International Malaysia said the repeated use and the wide nature of the Sedition Act signals a stagnation of the efforts to improve the freedom of expression in the country and urged the law that has been in force for far too long to be done away with promptly.
Its executive director, Shamini Darshni Kaliemuthu said the government must now act on its promise to abolish the Sedition Act in the upcoming Parliament sitting beginning October as announced by Law Minister Datuk Liew Vui Keong on Sept 11.
“Along with the call for the Sedition Act’s full abolition, we are urging the government to drop all pending charges under this repressive law immediately and without condition,” she said.
The government used a wide range of criminal laws to target human rights defenders and peaceful government critics, such as the Sedition Act, the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998, the Peaceful Assembly Act 2012, and the Security Offences and Special Measures Act 2012.
This morning, Tunku Azizah in her official twitter @cheminahsayang had expressed unhappiness on the arrest of her critics.
“Today I am sad and angry that the police arrested the three individuals concerned. All this while, the Tuanku and I have never lodged any police report on the negative things said about us…this is a free country..,” the queen said before again deactivating her Twitter account.
Tunku Azizah shocked netizens after having suddenly deactivated her twitter account on Wednesday. – Bernama
