LAW enforcement authorities should stop using the Sedition Act for arrests and investigations, given Putrajaya’s intention to repeal it, lawyer and DAP officer Syahredzan Johan said.

The political secretary to Iskandar Puteri MP Lim Kit Siang said the government should impose a moratorium on the use of the Act and other “draconian laws” until they are abolished.

“This moratorium should cover investigations, arrests and prosecutions under the (Sedition) Act,” he said in a statement today.

Syahredzan also said authorities need to change the way they work under the new government.

“If it is true that there is a standard operating procedure regarding the Act, then the SOP needs to be reviewed.

“The SOP cannot be used as an excuse to curb the basic freedoms of the people.”

Syahredzan was reacting to remarks by Deputy Home Minister Mohd Azis Jamman yesterday that the Act will continue to be used as the law has not been repealed or amended.

Azis, who drew flak for his statement, was responding to Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad who said police need not arrest people who insult him on social media sites. Azis said police had to follow the SOP which requires action after a report is lodged.

Dr Mahathir had been commenting on the arrest under the Sedition Act of Azman Noor Adam, the younger brother of Umno supreme council member Lokman Noor Adam, for spreading images on social media that allegedly insulted the prime minister.

Syahredzan said that while it was true that the sedition law had yet to be abolished, it was also a fact that the PH manifesto had promised the new government would repeal the controversial law.

“We must remember that the Act is an anti-democratic law – a legacy of the British colonial power – that made sure the people in the colonies did not rise up to fight them.

“The Act criminalises expressions with the ‘tendency to be seditious’. This tendency covers a wide range, making this law easy to abuse for political purposes. Its use creates fear or a chilling effect on the people, curbing freedom of speech and expression that is guaranteed by the constitution.

“Laws like the Sedition Act have no place in a new Malaysia that promises open and free democracy,” he said. – October 5, 2018.