Sedition Bill amended to improve provisions

KUALA LUMPUR - The government, it is learnt, has amended the Sedition (Amendment) Bill 2015 to reduce the minimum jail term and "preserve" the discretion of the court to grant bail for sedition offences instead of denying bail as stated initially in the bill.

The new amendment, which is amendment in committee stage, sighted by theSun, showed that it seeks to improve the provisions of the Sedition Act.

"Amongst others, amendment is made to delete the illustration, which has been inserted for paragraph 3(1)(b) of the principal Act," the document stated.

It also seeks to amend the penalties by reducing the minimum sentence of imprisonment for the offence under the new subsection 4(1A) of the principal act from five years to three years.

This will also remove the act of importing seditious publication from the scope of the principal Act.

"With this amendment, the act of importing seditious publication is no longer an offence under principal act.

"Also, this amendment will preserve the discretion of the court to grant bail for sedition offences," the document stated.

This comes after few Barisan Nasional backbenchers and East Malaysian MPs expressed dissatisfaction and resistance to the bill.

It is learnt that the BN East Malaysian MPs have met the Dewan Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia after the Sedition Bill was tabled in Parliament.

It was also reported that Deputy Home Minister Datuk Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said that some of matters agreed upon and inserted in the draft of the bill is different from what was tabled on Tuesday.

"Sometimes we don't see the finished bill. Then we find that the things we wanted in first instance was not inside…and something else they put in," he had reportedly said.

The Sedition (Amendment) Bill 2015 is expected to be debated today and currently the Dewan Rakyat is deliberating on the Opposition MP's motion to defer the Sedition bill as it would be sub                    judice to the pending Federal Court decision on the constitutionality of the Sedition Act.