After 57 years of independence the country has not moved forward but backwards.
The irony seems to be lost on the BN government that on the day we celebrated 57 years of independence, it was using pre-independence laws that had been concocted by the old colonial power to defeat the anti-colonial struggle, especially the Malayan workers’ movement.
These laws include the Societies Ordinance that is being used against the PPS in Penang, and the Sedition Act used against elected members of Parliament and even a “moderate” senior academic!
The Societies Ordinance goes as far back as 1889 when the British colonial power enacted the law to deal with a radical working class as well as an anti-colonial nationalist movement.
The Ordinance was used to register and deregister unions at the behest of the colonial power during the turn of the century when the Malayan working class was being progressively unionised.
An example was the Pineapple Cutters Association which was registered in 1908 but was deregistered in 1913. (Hua Wu Yin, “Class & Communalism in Malaysia”, Zed Press, London, 1984:84)
During the strikes by estate workers just after the Second World War, the United Planting Association of Malaya urged the colonial government to enforce the pre-war Societies Ordinance in order to control the unions.
Then as the struggle by the workers and anti-colonial forces gathered strength against the Federation of Malaya proposals in 1948, the colonial authorities enforced the registration of all unions under the restrictive 1940 Societies Ordinance.
Among the clauses of the Act, government employees were not allowed to join unions of non-government employees, an obvious attempt to divide the workers’ movement. The Societies Ordinance was again used by the colonial power to deal with the Pan-Malayan Federation of Trade Unions which was leading the unions in the country during the 1940s.
Through its recent actions against NGOs and community groups, the Malaysian government has violated the right to freedom of association by regulations requiring that any society comprising seven or more people be registered by the Registrar of Societies.
As in colonial times, the home affairs minister has absolute discretion to declare a society unlawful if he believes it would prejudice the “security of Malaysia” or “public order or morality.” The Registrar of Societies may refuse or cancel the registration of a society on similar grounds.
In 2012, at least six government agencies were ordered to investigate Suaram to see if we had illegally circumvented registration. We were accused of being “foreign agents” and even suspected of money laundering. However, after six months of exhaustive investigation by those agencies, such accusations were proven groundless.
Today, while the country is feeling increasingly insecure with the failure of the security forces to maintain law and order, the Home Minister and the ROS have misplaced their priorities by deciding to use colonial methods on the PPS in Penang and threatened to do the same with PAS’ Unit Amal.
Likewise, the most recent charging of MPs and even a “moderate” academic under the colonial “Sedition Act” is an affront to the Merdeka spirit. Starting from the sentencing of Hindraf leader P Uthayakumar to 30 months jail for allegedly publishing seditious material in 2007, this shows bad faith by the Najib government when the prime minister had already pledged to repeal the Orwellian Sedition Act just before the 13th general election.
Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak himself had been quoted as saying that the Sedition Act represented a “bygone era” and would be replaced with a new law to prevent incitement of religious or racial hatred in an effort to protect civil liberties:
“We mark another step forward in Malaysia’s development. The new National Harmony Act will balance the right of freedom of expression as enshrined in the Constitution, while at the same time ensuring that all races and religions are protected,” Najib said not too long ago.”
Sedition laws in most Commonwealth countries have been repealed because they have been seen as an infringement on freedom of speech and a tool of colonial political persecution. More fundamentally, a truly independent post-colonial nation tries its best to discard all the repressive apparatus of the shameful colonial era.
The recent arrests of politicians and an academic puts us back at least 50 years into the dark colonial period. And just when I was about to join the Movement of Moderates, they go and charge one of my favourite moderate heroes for sedition. Maybe we are in the era of zombies for, as Frantz Fanon warned us in the Wretched of the Earth:
“Zombies, believe me, are more terrifying than colonialists.”
Kua Kia Soong is a Suaram adviser
These laws include the Societies Ordinance that is being used against the PPS in Penang, and the Sedition Act used against elected members of Parliament and even a “moderate” senior academic!
The Societies Ordinance goes as far back as 1889 when the British colonial power enacted the law to deal with a radical working class as well as an anti-colonial nationalist movement.
The Ordinance was used to register and deregister unions at the behest of the colonial power during the turn of the century when the Malayan working class was being progressively unionised.
An example was the Pineapple Cutters Association which was registered in 1908 but was deregistered in 1913. (Hua Wu Yin, “Class & Communalism in Malaysia”, Zed Press, London, 1984:84)
During the strikes by estate workers just after the Second World War, the United Planting Association of Malaya urged the colonial government to enforce the pre-war Societies Ordinance in order to control the unions.
Then as the struggle by the workers and anti-colonial forces gathered strength against the Federation of Malaya proposals in 1948, the colonial authorities enforced the registration of all unions under the restrictive 1940 Societies Ordinance.
Among the clauses of the Act, government employees were not allowed to join unions of non-government employees, an obvious attempt to divide the workers’ movement. The Societies Ordinance was again used by the colonial power to deal with the Pan-Malayan Federation of Trade Unions which was leading the unions in the country during the 1940s.
Through its recent actions against NGOs and community groups, the Malaysian government has violated the right to freedom of association by regulations requiring that any society comprising seven or more people be registered by the Registrar of Societies.
As in colonial times, the home affairs minister has absolute discretion to declare a society unlawful if he believes it would prejudice the “security of Malaysia” or “public order or morality.” The Registrar of Societies may refuse or cancel the registration of a society on similar grounds.
In 2012, at least six government agencies were ordered to investigate Suaram to see if we had illegally circumvented registration. We were accused of being “foreign agents” and even suspected of money laundering. However, after six months of exhaustive investigation by those agencies, such accusations were proven groundless.
Today, while the country is feeling increasingly insecure with the failure of the security forces to maintain law and order, the Home Minister and the ROS have misplaced their priorities by deciding to use colonial methods on the PPS in Penang and threatened to do the same with PAS’ Unit Amal.
Likewise, the most recent charging of MPs and even a “moderate” academic under the colonial “Sedition Act” is an affront to the Merdeka spirit. Starting from the sentencing of Hindraf leader P Uthayakumar to 30 months jail for allegedly publishing seditious material in 2007, this shows bad faith by the Najib government when the prime minister had already pledged to repeal the Orwellian Sedition Act just before the 13th general election.
Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak himself had been quoted as saying that the Sedition Act represented a “bygone era” and would be replaced with a new law to prevent incitement of religious or racial hatred in an effort to protect civil liberties:
“We mark another step forward in Malaysia’s development. The new National Harmony Act will balance the right of freedom of expression as enshrined in the Constitution, while at the same time ensuring that all races and religions are protected,” Najib said not too long ago.”
Sedition laws in most Commonwealth countries have been repealed because they have been seen as an infringement on freedom of speech and a tool of colonial political persecution. More fundamentally, a truly independent post-colonial nation tries its best to discard all the repressive apparatus of the shameful colonial era.
The recent arrests of politicians and an academic puts us back at least 50 years into the dark colonial period. And just when I was about to join the Movement of Moderates, they go and charge one of my favourite moderate heroes for sedition. Maybe we are in the era of zombies for, as Frantz Fanon warned us in the Wretched of the Earth:
“Zombies, believe me, are more terrifying than colonialists.”
Kua Kia Soong is a Suaram adviser
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