Zahid swears to God sedition probes to go on

 

Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi took an oath to God that police will commence investigations using the Sedition Act "within 24 hours" of a complaint.

This despite calls for a moratorium, following the government’s decision to review the Act and the attorney-general's announcement that all cases under the Act will be reviewed.

"As the minister responsible for the Royal Malaysian Police, wallahi billahi tallahi (I swear to Allah) that if police reports are lodged against any individual who impinged on a sensitive issue, the police will start investigations immediately, if possible within 24 hours," he said.

He said this in a speech at an Umno Lumut event on Sept 20. A 5-minute video recording of the speech was uploaded onto Youtube by Perak BN yesterday.

In the speech, Zahid (left) said although he can promise an investigation, the decision on whether or not to prosecute can only be made by the attorney-general.

Following that, he stressed, the decision to convict lies with the judiciary and he has no intentions to take those powers away.

"Some of you have asked, 'why did the police arrest them?', 'why didn’t the police take action?' We don’t want to take over the powers vested upon the attorney-general and the court.

"I just want to say that if the court decides a person is guilty, the police will immediately take him to prison. The prisons are under my control," he said, without elaborating on the treatment of prisoners.

An updated version of Sedition Act

The minister also vowed that "elements within the Sedition Act will be maintained in the National Harmony Act", which the government is mulling as a replacement.

"Not only that, (we want) elements that are not in the Sedition Act but are relevant today, especially the social media.

"We want the act to be strengthened so that action can be taken against social media users if the touch on sensitive issues," he said in a speech, a video of which was uploaded by BN Perak on Youtube yesterday.

He, however, added that the draft of the National Harmony Act has yet to be tabled to cabinet.

Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak in 2012 promised to repeal the Sedition Act.

However, the PM earlier this month said the government is still reviewing whether to amend or replace the Act.

A journalist, lawyers, activists, students and a law lecturer are facing action under the Sedition Act.