Kuching, Aug 16, 2012: Parliamentary deputy speaker Datuk Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar is supporting calls by Umno Youth leader Khairy Jamaluddin and Deputy Education Minister Saifuddin Abdullah on the Najib administration to review the controversial amendment to Evident Act which was passed by Parliament in April and gazetted on July 31.
He said the Act should not have been tabled without getting the feedback from the people.
“The government should have appointed a committee, similar to the parliamentary select committee, to get the views and feedback from people.
“The committee should hold public hearings all over the country, from Perlis to Sarawak and Sabah,” the outspoken Santubong Member of Parliament said at the Media Appreciation Night at a hotel here tonight.
“If you want to have fair and genuine views of the people, then the committee should be allowed to hold public hearings,” he said.
Wan Junaidi said the support given by the Wakil Rakyat does not reflect the true feedback from the people.
“ If you want to have a government by the people, for the people and of the people, then the government should consult them,” he said.
Junaidi claimed that the BN chief whip had given warning to the BN Wakil Rakyat to support the passing of the amendment to the Evident Act.
The amendment was passed by the Dewan Rakyat and Dewan Negara in April this year amid accusations that it was bulldozed through along with other reform laws without proper debate on its repercussions.
Section 114A — otherwise known as Evidence (Amendment) (No 2) Act 2012 — was gazetted on July 31 by de facto law minister Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz.
The amendment enables law enforcement officials to hold publishers of websites accountable for seditious, defamatory or libellous postings even if they are not the actual authors of the content.
Those affected include people who own, administer or edit websites open to public contributors such as forums or blogs, people who provide web-hosting services on Internet access and people who own the computers or mobile devices used to publish content online.
This resulted in the “Stop 114A campaign” by the Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ) on Tuesday which was backed by organisations such as the Bar Council.
The opposition to the amendment dominated miro blogging site Twitter and social networking site, Facebook.
Saifuddin described the controversial amendment to Section 114A of the Evidence Act as a “hiccup” to Prime Minister Najib Razak’s political transformation programme.
The Umno leader, speaking at a Bar Council forum on the law’s possible threat to internet freedom, said the law was a setback to Najib’s democratic reforms as the Act gives wide prosecution powers to create fear and narrow dissenting space.
Critics of the law claimed the section makes it easy for the government to charge anyone seen “facilitating” what is deemed as criminal comments on the internet even if the comments were made by someone else.
Those supporting the Act argued that the law gives space for the accused to prove innocence although they admit that it does not solve the problem of hacking or fraudulence where criminal comments may be posted by hackers under fake accounts.
The Malaysian government under the Mahathir administration, in an effort to promote the country’s internet communication technology market, vowed to leave internet free as it aims to draw investments into a sector that makes up 4.1% of GDP.
Saifuddin said the amendment may become a threat to the sector.
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