PKR vice-president N Surendran today claimed trial to a sedition charge filed against him in a sessions court in Kuala Lumpur.
If found guilty, Surendran will face a maximum three-year jail term or a maximum fine of RM5,000, or both.
The Padang Serai MP is charged with sedition for saying, in a press statement titled ‘Court of Appeal written judgment in Fitnah II is flawed, defensive and insupportable’ on April 14, 2014, that the Anwar Ibrahim Sodomy II charge is false.
DPP Syed Faisal Syed Amir, who represented the prosecution, asked for bail be set at RM10,000.
…. Surendran is the second vice-president from PKR charged under the controversial and draconian Sedition Act, which Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak has said his government intended to repeal.
Batu MP and PKR vice-president Tian Chua has also faced a similar charge.
In its latest attack on democracy the BN government of Najib Razak (“elected” on a minority of the popular vote) has resorted to the use of a colonial law passed in 1948 to combat terrorism then existing in the then Federation of Malaysia.
BN have had over fifty years to introduce modern legislation to deal with any such problem but have not done so. Why? Because the problem does not exist.
On the other hand, criticism of BN not ony exists, it is heard everwhere and with reason.
When a political leader was tried on a trumped up charge, which was thrown out by the High Court the BN answer was to order the Court of Appeal to overturn the acquittal and jail the person concerned!
Then, when that in turn was appealed BN are now trying to silence the lawyer representing that leader by charging him with sedition!
Schoolboys could do better and it is impossible to conclude other than that BN are deliberately misusing the law (with the connivance of their own lawyers) to try to stifle political opposition.
Following this farce Najib is due to attend his wife’s “Islamic Fashion Show” hosted by the Queen. How do dress shows fit with show trials? Windsor Castle to note.