Kassim Ahmad & Karpal Singh
Two recent cases raise the issue of what amounts to sedition and why one can’t question or challenge a ‘fatwa’.
THE recent conviction of Karpal Singh under the Sedition Act and the
charging of Kassim Ahmad under the Federal Territories Syariah offences
law raise some disturbing questions with serious implications as to
where we are headed as a democratic nation.
First, let us look at the Sedition Act. The trouble with this law, a
remnant of British colonialism, is two-fold. First, its basic premise
is that criticism of authority should be controlled. This in itself is
already an affront to democracy.
Second is its open-ended nature. Just what exactly amounts to
sedition, for example. However, up until the Karpal Singh case, I
thought there was one defence in the Sedition Act that was pretty
strong.
Something is not seditious if you are pointing out that the object
of your criticism has done something wrong, especially in the context of
their constitutional limitations. This appears so clear to me that it
seemed unlikely any court could find a way around it.
Alas, that is exactly what seems to have happened to Karpal. He
basically said that the decision made by the Sultan of Perak of choosing
a new Mentri Besar for the state in 2009 could be questioned in court.
I can’t for the life of me see what is seditious about that. Is the
Sultan limited by the Constitution and the law in the discharge of his
powers? Yes, of course he is. And if there is a dispute as to whether he
acted lawfully or not, could he not be questioned? Again, of course he
should, for we live in a constitutional and not an absolute monarchy.
And lastly, if there is to be a questioning of the acts of a member
of the royalty, is there a lawful manner with which this can be done?
Again the answer is yes, because we have the Special Court which was
designed specifically for the royals and inserted into our Constitution
by the Government.
Even within the authoritarian nature of the Sedition Act, there seem
to be limits as to what can be deemed seditious. I thought those limits
were clear enough. It appears that I am wrong.
What is of concern is that even when an act clearly falls within the
allowable limits of a law, this does not appear to make any difference
at all. Thus, the reach of a poor law becomes even greater and all that
much more oppressive.
The second thing I want to talk about is the charging of Kassim
Ahmad. This case raises some serious problems with some of the Syariah
laws we have in this country.
According to the Syariah Offences law of the Federal Territories, it
is an offence to question and speak in contradiction to a fatwa made by
the mufti.
This fatwa need not be gazetted, that is to say made into law, just
its mere exclamation is enough to give it weight of law. Needless to
say, fatwas which have been gazetted can’t be questioned either.
Firstly, one wonders why one can’t question or challenge a law? If a
fatwa is gazetted and made into law, what makes it different from any
other law? Why can’t it be challenged? I can criticise the Contracts Act
so why can’t I criticise any other thing which affects my life?
But what is really disturbing is the fact that a fatwa, which is
after all merely an opinion, can carry the weight of law even without
going through the legislative process of debate and voting. This in
effect means that one person’s words suddenly become akin to a law for
we cannot challenge it and if we do we can face a fine and jail.
This is frightfully undemocratic and can lead to some horrific
scenarios. What if a mufti passes a fatwa saying that any sort of
dissension against the civil government is wrong?
According to the Federal Territories law, any challenge of fatwa can
be punished. What kind of democracy are we living in if a person’s
statement by itself can have such authority?
Much has been said about how Malaysia is edging towards a more
liberal and open democracy. Laws have been repealed or changed and steps
(albeit baby steps) have apparently been taken.
What these two events show is that there are still some very
undemocratic laws in existence, they are still being used and any hope
that we are becoming more democratic is hopelessly naïve.
Brave New World by Azmi Sharam
> Azmi Sharom (azmisharom@yahoo.co.uk) is a law teacher. The views expressed are entirely the writer’s own.
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Showing posts with label Syariah offences. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Syariah offences. Show all posts
Wednesday 2 April 2014
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