DAP lawmakers have banded together in support of Seputeh Member of Parliament Teresa Kok who is being persecuted by the government via the oppressive Sedition Act.
“DAP strongly condemns the action taken against Kok,” said Lim Guan Eng, Penang Chief Minister and DAP Secretary General.
“She will not back down, we will stand with her so we will not back down and we will fight to the end,” he said, adding that the charge under the Act was not something that caught the party by surprise.
Lim Guan Eng himself and the late Karpal Singh were among the many political victims of the Act, which included DAP’s Fan Yew Teng, Dr Ooi Kee Saik and others.
The DAP Secretary General urged Barisan Nasional to challenge the opposition pact using constitutional means i.e the ballot box, instead of attempting to bring down the PR coalition by dirty tactics.
Gobind: Najib is a weak leader
Also joining Lim in condemning the tyrannical law was Gobind Singh, MP for Puchong, who said that Prime Minister Najib Rajak had failed to follow through and repeal the act as he had pledged.
“He is a weak leader, one who lacks political courage to see through with his promises,” he said of Najib.
Echoing Gobind’s sentiments, Teresa Kok said that the charges against her proved that Najib’s promise to repeal the Act was hollow and insincere. “It also shows how political darkness has now returned to this nation after the last general election,” she said.
Calling the charges against her “politically-motivated”, Kok said the government is ratcheting up its campaign against Pakatan Rakyat via court prosecution. According to her, BN’s intention in doing this is to cripple the Opposition and to silence critics in society.
“It was Anwar first – for sodomy, then YB Karpal Singh – for sedition for merely proffering legal advice and now me, over an amorphous and a wholly benign satire. Add to that Rafizi, Nik Nazmi, Anthony Loke, Thomas Su and others.
“Anyone who has seen my video will know that it is merely a political satire where the issues and jokes raised by the actor and actress are in jest and they were topics of discussion by ordinary people in the country,” Kok said.
Opposition leaders have repeatedly urged the government to do away with the Sedition Act, a colonial law which was used by the then British government to stifle dissent.
Former de facto Law Minister Nazri Aziz said in 2012 that the “Sedition Act was enacted by the British colony government in 1948, because it is not a democratic government, (they were) afraid that people will criticise and affect their rule.” -The Rocket
