(Penang, Sunday): I call on the Attorney-General Datuk Gani Patail to explain
how long more he needs to decide whether I should be charged and prosecuted for
sedition in connection with the DAP’s “No to 911, No to 929, Yes to 1957”
People’s Awareness Campaign pamphlet.
I was arrested by the Ipoh Police at the Pasir Pinji market on June 5, 2002 and Parliament was told that I was arrested for distributing a pamphlet with “seditious tendency” which is an offence under the Sedition Act 1948, punishable with a maximum sentence of three years’ jail, RM5,000 fine or both.
Although the police revoked the RM3,000 police bail in connection with my arrest last Friday, the serious case of sedition is still hanging over my head as I am told that the Attorney-General had not decided on the police investigations paper on my arrest. This means I can be arrested and prosecuted under the Sedition Act any time.
If it is an offence of sedition to say “No to 929” or
“No to Islamic state”, then the first three Prime Ministers of Malaysia,
Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak and Tun Hussein Onn, would have been guilty of
sedition for they had declared publicly that Malaysia is a secular state with
Islam as the official religion but Malaysia is not an Islamic state.
This is why in the second phase of the “No to 911, No to
929,. Yes to 1957” People’s Awareness Campaign, we have not only come out
with a booklet giving the reasons for the need for Malaysians regardless of
race, religion or political beliefs, to unite and defend the 1957 Merdeka
Constitution, the “social contract” and the 1963 Malaysia Agreement, but
also a poster featuring Tunku Abdul Rahman with his own words in 1983:
“Don’t turn Malaysia into an Islamic State”.
The length taken to decide whether to charge and prosecute me for sedition in connection with the “No to 929” pamphlet is not a flattering reflection on the efficiency of the Attorney-General’s Chambers or Gani Patail, and I call on him to take a decision on this matter within the next 48 hours.
(7/7/2002)