RIGHT-WING Malay group Pertubuhan Sahabat Erat dan Amanat Rakyat (Sedar) Malaysia missed the point forum panellists yesterday made about the Rome Statute forum’s panelists made yesterday, said student activist Asheeq Ali.

Responding to reports that Sedar has filed a police report against the forum organiser, moderator, and panelists, Asheeq said the group has cherry-picked Syed Husin Ali’s comments on the monarchy to demonise the forum.

“Of course, it is their democratic right to make a police report,” he said.

“They should have looked at the content of the arguments, but they didn’t. Where are their comments about what the attorney-general was saying? There was no comment on that,” he told The Malaysian Insight.

Asheeq said the Sedition Act should not be used against Syed Husin whose standpoint was purely academic.

Asheeq and his fellow student activists are responsible for uploading what they say is a 10-page executive summary of a paper that was presented to the Conference of Rulers on April 2 to convince them to reject the Rome Statute.

In his report to police, Sedar president Nazrin Norani said the panelists had ridiculed the royal institution in their speeches, and that the audience at the forum had cheered when they made the insults.

“Sedar Malaysia attended the forum to get first-hand information about the Rome Statute but was shocked as it became a forum to insult and ridicule the monarchy,” he said in the report.

The forum yesterday featured Attorney-General Tommy Thomas, constitutional expert Prof Shad Saleem Faruqi, G25 member Noor Farida Ariffin, sociologist Syed Husin, lawyer Lim Wei Jiet and Asheeq.

Syed Husin, a well-known leftist, had asked if the objection of the ruler of a “certain southern state”  to the treaty was linked to allegations on social media that his royal family was being investigated for possible crimes. – April 28, 2019.