PETALING JAYA, Feb 26 — Malaysia’s efforts to uphold human rights will be severely affected with Putrajaya’s continued use of the Sedition Act as well as discrimination against minority groups, Amnesty International has said.

In its annual report released today, the human rights watchdog said that Malaysia’s human rights performance has been tainted with the usage of repressive laws and discriminative policies, and that this will affect Malaysia’s record in the coming years.

“Freedom of expression came under attack as the government increasingly uses the Sedition Act to arrest and charge human rights defenders and opposition politicians,” the report read.

“Malaysia’s human rights record has worsened throughout the years as evident from the Chinese New Year crackdown under the Sedition Act and the Penal Code,” the organisation’s Malaysian chapter executive director Shamini Darshni said at a press conference on the report.

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She pointed out that police arrests are “intensifying” and that there are “almost one or two cases daily.”

On February 20, police arrested activist Lawrence Jeyaraj for posting allegedly seditious comments on his Facebook page, just a day after a Parti Sosialis Malaysia secretary-general S. Arutchelvan was arrested for a similar offence.

Arutchelvan was detained over a statement on February 10 denouncing Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s sodomy verdict as a “political judgment, beyond reasonable doubt”.

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Both have since been released pending investigation.

Putrajaya had previously pledged to repeal the 1948 Sedition Act but later announced that it will be retained and expanded instead.

Amnesty International also expressed concern on the ban of Arabic word “Allah”, the raid carried upon the Bible Society Of Malaysia last year as well as several rounds of seizure of Christian materials, saying that local authorities have often used religion as a justification for discriminations against minority religious groups.

“Other religious minority groups, including the Shiah, faced intimidation and threats of criminalisation, while civil society groups and human rights organisations also faced harassment and intimidation from both authorities and certain religious groups,” the report read.

It also criticised Putrajaya over the treatment of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community, who are often harassed and intimidated by authorities.

“In a landmark decision in November last year, the Court of Appeal ruled that a Negri Sembilan shariah law making cross-dressing illegal was inconsistent with the Federal Constitution. 

“However, reports were received during the year about the arrest and imprisonment of the lesbians, gays, bisexual, transgender and intersex people purely on their sexuality,” the report read.

It said that the space for civil societies will also continue to shrink as the government continues to use repressive laws against its people, adding that 119 out of 160 governments worldwide also employ repressive laws to arbitrarily restrict freedom of expression.

“We hope any amendments to the sedition act does not further violate it,” Shamini added referring to the scheduled amendment to the Sedition Act 1948 which will be tabled in the March sitting of Parliament, along with a new bill to tackle the threat of militant activities here.

Among others, it has been reported that the Sedition Act will be strengthened on several aspects, including sedition on the Internet, religious sensitivities and calls for the secession of Sabah and Sarawak from the federation.

“The way the Sedition Act is being used, and the way we read it, is that it is used to suppress dissent. Critical dissident is part of democracy and it is for nation building as critics are stakeholders too,” she added.

In its overview of Malaysia’s human rights practices for the 2014/2015 session, the report  also highlighted the increase in death in custody cases as well as Putrajaya’s usage of the death penalty.

“Reports of human rights violations by the police persisted, including deaths in custody, torture and other ill-treatment and unnecessary and excessive use of force and firearms,” Amnesty International said.

It also pointed out how police investigations into cases of human rights violations were rare, with the government’s refusal to to establish an Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission to investigate custodial death cases, despite it being recommended in a 2005 Royal Commission of Inquiry report.