KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 10 — Gobind Singh Deo leapt to the defence of DAP after the party were chided by the National Human Rights Society (Hakam) for endorsing the use of the archaic Sedition Act.
The DAP national deputy chairman, in a statement on his Facebook page, stressed the party maintains their stand that the Sedition Act should be abolished, as stated in the Pakatan Harapan (PH) manifesto.
“The Sedition Act is arbitrary and subject to abuse. It has been used as a political tool to stifle political dissent here in Malaysia.
“We have consistently called for its repeal and that position remains,” he added.
This follows conflicting calls by fellow DAP lawmaker and also brother to Gobind, Ramkarpal Singh, to invoke the colonial era law to investigate former inspector-general of police Tun Hanif Omar over his recent allegations against Lim Kit Siang.
The party and Ramkarpal were then chided by Hakam, who called his push for the use of the act as ironic and against what was promised by PH in its manifesto.
Gobind also weighed in on Hanif’s allegations, clearly distancing himself from the idea of invoking the controversial act.
“Whilst I agree that action should be taken against Tun Hanif Omar for the somewhat reckless and baseless allegations he made against Lim Kit Siang, resort should not be made to the Sedition Act for that purpose,” he said in the statement.
