It appears that Putrajaya has forgotten its pledge to repeal the Sedition Act.

In the wake of the “era of Najib’s New Despotism” (coined by DAP Parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang), Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Shahidan Kassim insists that Prime Minister Najib had never given his word to abolish the Seditions Act.

“The Prime Minister never promised to repeal it, he only planned to review it. This means the Sedition Act may be replaced with the National Harmony Act but it might not be repealed,” Shahidan Kassim said today.

However, Najib had said on July 2012 that the Sedition Act would be replaced by the National Harmony Act. A year later, the Prime Minister while on BBC World News said that the government would amend the act.

In view of Shahidan’s “u-turn” on behalf of Putrajaya, DAP National Vice Chairman M Kula Segaran has lambasted the Minister, saying that many from the opposition camp had reminded the federal government to repeal the Act as promised.

“If Najib did not make a promise or had been misquoted, he could have denied or clarified over the last two years, but he did not make any denial or clarification.”

“Hence, what Shahidan has just said is pure nonsense. Stop twisting the real truth.”

Kula Segaran asked also that this “nonsense” not be viewed lightly, demanding the Prime Minister to rebut what Shahidan had said.

Responding to pressure to repeal the Sedition Act, the federal government announced last Saturday that the Harmony Bill was in the drafting stage, but the opposition camp took this with a pinch of salt as Pakatan leaders were being arrested for sedition at a scale unseen since the Mahathir Mohamed’s premiership.

The wave of “Najib’s New Despotism” did not spare Professor Azmi Sharom, a law lecturer from University of Malaya and Susan Loone, journalist from Malaysiakini from a brush with the Sedition Act. Professor Azmi Sharom’s charge is a historic first for Malaysia, where an academic is charged for sedition for his professional opinion. He had drawn a “seditious” parallel between the Selangor MB debacle and the 2009 Perak Constitutional crisis.

“Malaysians who are worried that Malaysia may become a police state must ask if what Shahidan said is a tactic to test the water so that the BN government can renege on its promise to repeal the archaic Act,” Kula said.

Shahidan voiced out views of the public that he claims want the return of the Internal Security Act, saying that he received a lot of complaints from people who lament the abolishing of the act which was replaced by the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012.

He had also said that people were less “law abiding” following ISA’s repeal; adding that people would be free to “insult one another” without the Sedition Act. The Act is useful in multiracial Malaysia, the Minister claimed.

Kula Segaran, however, believes that the Sedition Act is a tool to stifle freedom of speech, urging citizens, political parties and NGO’s to unite and fight to repeal the Act.

“A strong and clear message must be sent to the Prime Minister that a promise is a promise and he must fulfil his 2012 promise. He has no other option,” said Kula. -The Rocket