PETALING JAYA, March 1 ― A civil liberties lawyer proposed that a Law Commission be set up to review all legislation should Pakatan Harapan win the next general elections.
Syahredzan Johan said that the commission should consist of “eminent persons” and should review the constitutionality of all the laws formed post-Independence up until the latest Parliament meeting.
“This is to see if there are laws that should be abolished, amended or new laws have to be enacted,” he said during a forum titled “GE14: Battle of Fake News” in Subang Jaya yesterday.
He said that among others, legislations such as the Sedition Act, Official Secrets Act, and Printing Presses and Publications Act should be abolished to give greater freedom of speech to the people and the media.
Putrajaya recently mooted formulating legislation to tackle fake news in Malaysia, which critics said could be used to further stifle space for expression in Malaysia.
Meanwhile, DAP legal bureau secretary Michelle Ng, who was a fellow panellist at the forum, urged people to be more mindful before disseminating information on social media.
“Don’t be lawyers, be engineers. Engineers always look at both sides of the situation, while lawyers collect all the evidence necessary to make a case,” she said.
The other panelists were veteran journalist R. Nadeswaran, The Malaysian Insight writer Zulkifli Sulong, PKR vice president Nurul Izzah Anwar and DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang.
