KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 10 — The low threshold needed to prosecute under the Sedition Act 1948 meant Putrajaya could charge Perkasa's Ibrahim Ali even if he was “defending Islam” with his call to burn Malay-language bibles, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said today.
Pointing to his conviction under the colonial era law for attempting to speak up for an alleged rape victim in 1998, Lim told Putrajaya that an individual's motive did not matter when it came to sedition.
“As a victim of Sedition Act who was imprisoned for 18 months in Kajang Prison in 1998, this incredible excuse of 'defending Islam' does not exist in sedition law and is completely unacceptable.
“Is Nancy (Shukri) pretending or is she completely ignorant of the law as to not know that the intention of the maker or even the truthfulness of the statement is irrelevant in sedition cases and it is an offence to act, speak or publish statements with a seditious tendency?” he said in a statement today.
The Penang chief minister said de facto law minister Nancy's explanation that Ibrahim's actions were consisted with the Federal Constitution also cast doubt on her qualifications as a lawyer, as it suggested she has no knowledge of existing legislation.
Challenging Nancy to repeat her remarks before Christians in her state of Sarawak, Lim also pointed to Sarawak minister Tan Sri Dr James Masing's warning that her explanation of Ibrahim's action was “most dangerous” and an invitation for extremists to act similarly in the future.
Lim added that the refusal to use the Sedition Act against the Malay rights group leader when Putrajaya readily applied it to opposition lawmakers and critical dissenters showed that the law was used to persecute political opponents of the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN).
In Penang last year, Ibrahim allegedly urged Muslims to torch Malay-language bibles that contain the word “Allah”, the Arabic word for God.
De facto law minister Nancy told Parliament earlier this week that Ibrahim was not charged in court over his alleged threat to burn Malay-language Christian holy scriptures because the police had concluded that the Malay rights group leader was merely defending the sanctity of Islam, and had not intended to create religious chaos with his statement.
The police's probe also found that Ibrahim’s statement was directed at individuals who had purportedly distributed bibles containing the word “Allah” to students, including the Malays, at Penang’s Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Jelutong, Nancy had said.
This was roundly criticised by lawmakers and civil groups, and drew outraged response from the Christian Federation of Malaysia.
Last night, Nancy explained that the AGC had decided not to charge Ibrahim “after considering the outcome” of the police probe, also saying that this was because the context of his speech was in line with the spirit of the Federal Constitution's Article 11(4).
While Article 11 guarantees the constitutional right of all Malaysians to freely profess and practise their faith, Article 11(4) says that state laws or laws for the federal territories “may control or restrict the propagation of any religious doctrine or belief among persons professing the religion of Islam”.
