PUTRAJAYA is drafting another national unity bill, two years after sidelining three draft bills in favour of keeping the Sedition Act – a law that has been mainly used to shut down government critics.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Joseph Kurup today announced plans to table the new law, but they would first have to be discussed by the Cabinet, noting that the three earlier bills were rejected because they contradicted the Federal Constitution.

“We are doing another one. If someone is found guilty of saying something that could cause disunity, we are looking at calling this person to undergo counselling, and it is only when that person doesn’t show any remorse that we will let the authorities handle it.

“We are now studying this. We need to know that there is still room for correction,” Kurup said after launching an inter-religious talk in Universiti Malaysia Sabah in Kota Kinabalu, today.

A 30-member National Unity Consultative Council (NUCC) had drafted the Racial and Religious Hate Crimes Bill, National Harmony and Reconciliation Bill, and National Harmony and Reconciliation Commission Bill.

The NUCC was established on November 25, 2014, upon the order of Prime Minister Najib Razak, to prepare a national blueprint for national unity and social cohesion.

But the draft laws never saw light in Parliament. Instead, the government decided to keep the Sedition Act after announcing it would be repealed. The NUCC was also dissolved last year.

Recent developments in Malaysia that showed the persistence of religious discrimination have prompted calls for Putrajaya to revive the National Harmony and Reconciliation Bill.

The prime minister’s bother, Nazir Razak, who was on the NUCC, recently asked on Instagram what had happened to the bill to stop unfair discrimination based on religion, race, descent, birthplace, gender, and disability.

“What happened to this national unity bill? We urgently need to define and legislate the boundaries of (what is) acceptable in how we relate to each other. What is racist, what isn’t. What is unacceptable segregation, what isn’t. Cancer starts quite innocuously, but has to confronted immediately,” he wrote, following a public outcry over a Muslim-only launderette in Muar last week.

The opposition is hoping to push through the National Harmony and Reconciliation Commission Bill in Parliament, but admits it could be a long time before the bill to criminalise discrimination sees the light of day.
 
Amanah vice-president Dr Mujahid Yusof Rawa, who also sat on the NUCC, is hoping to table a private member’s bill in the next parliamentary sitting beginning on October 23. But his success will depend on the Speaker, he said.

“I hope to bring it up through a private member’s bill in the coming Dewan Rakyat sitting… but it may be a long way for it to see light,” he told The Malaysian Insight on Monday. 

“Any MP can submit one but the speaker determines whether to accept it or reject it. It can be rejected just like that but I will prepare the draft. I will bring this up, too, with my Pakatan Harapan colleagues.” 

He said the coalition would “certainly propose” that the three bills drafted by the NUCC be made law to stop discrimination, racial and religious provocations, and hatred. 

Mujahid was the only opposition representative on the NUCC. He was a PAS member at the time he was appointed to the council. – October 5, 2017.