I wish that our government should stop using the word rule when they talk about themselves. They seem to have forgotten that a government merely governs, it does not rule. Only the Rulers rule.
This is a symptom of being in power for far too long. They have forgotten that they merely govern and I’m sure some of them have styled themselves as de-facto Rulers by now.
Which is why I think that the bunch of kids are being hauled up for acts of stepping on the PM’s photograph under the Sedition Act is unlawful. In the Act, S.3(1) defines seditious acts as:
(a) to bring into hatred or contempt or to excite disaffection against any Ruler or against any Government;
(b) to excite the subjects of the Ruler or the inhabitants of any territory governed by any government to attempt to procure in the territory of the Ruler or governed by the Government, the alteration, otherwise than by lawful means, of any matter as by law established;
(c) to bring into hatred or contempt or to excite disaffection against the administration of justice in Malaysia or in any State;
(d) to raise discontent or disaffection amongst the subjects of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong or of the Ruler of any State or amongst the inhabitants of Malaysia or of any State;
(e) to promote feelings of ill-will and hostility between different races or classes of the population of Malaysia; or
(f) to question any matter, right, status, position, privilege, sovereignty or prerogative established or protected by the provisions of part III of the Federal constitution or Article 152, 153 or 181 of the Federal Constitution.
The only way that I can see that stepping on the PM’s photograph is wrong is if he is defined as the Ruler for he is certainly not the government but merely the head of one branch of government.
Let me reiterate this – our PM is not the government. So, how could the Sedition Act apply to an act of stepping on his face – unless of course he styles himself as the “Ruler”, which would itself be seditious.
Then again, maybe I’m just too stoopid to understand these things.
Also, it’s OK to step on a Chief Minister’s photograph but not so to step on a Prime Minister’s photograph. I wonder what would happen to someone who uses the photograph as target practice in a range.
Malaysia Boleh!
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