KOTA KINABALU, Oct 5 — The government is redrafting the National Harmony Bill to include counselling for offenders who make hate speech, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Tan Sri Joseph Kurup said today.
The minister in charge of national unity said that his department was not shelving the Bill, but it was in the process of redrafting the bill after three previous recommended drafts were rejected by the government.
“We have to put national unity in mind and provide counselling for those who were making discriminatory speech.
“They can still be corrected. If they commit an act against the law however, they will still be dealt by different bodies. Our function is to foster national unity, not punish,” he said.
Kurup said the previous three drafts were rejected because some provisions contradicted the Federal Constitution.
He said that he would push for the Bill to be finalised as soon as possible, hopefully by the coming parliamentary meeting, if the Cabinet approved it.
“We have to do it, just need to approach it a different way,” he said to reporters after officiating an interfaith dialogue at Universiti Malaysia Sabah here today.
Recently, calls were made by civil groups to revive the National Harmony and Reconciliation Bill, which has been in the offing for several years.
The Bills were previously proposed in the national unity blueprint by the National Unity Consultative Council (NUCC) to curb discrimination and extremism.
The call came in the wake of reports of a Muslim-only laundry in Muar, Johor, which went viral recently.
