The 2014 Malaysian sedition dragnet is an ongoing campaign by the

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

where several citizens were arrested and charged for allegedly making seditious statements in contravention of Section 4 of the

Sedition Act 1948 The Sedition Act 1948 ( ms, Akta Hasutan 1948) in Malaysia is a law prohibiting discourse deemed as seditious. The act was originally enacted by the colonial authorities of British Malaya in 1948 to contain the local communist insurgence. The ac ...

. The term "sedition dragnet" is widely used by the Malaysian media to describe the campaign.

Background

The Sedition Act is considered by opposition politicians and activists to be an outdated draconian law introduced by the British colonial government which aims to stifle freedom of expression. Government officials however consider the Sedition Act as necessary to maintain peace in the country. Another controversial piece of legislation, the Internal Security Act (ISA), was repealed in 2012 by the

Najib Razak Dato' Sri Haji Mohammad Najib bin Tun Haji Abdul Razak ( ms, محمد نجيب بن عبد الرزاق, label= Jawi, script=arab, italic=unset, ; born 23 July 1953) is a Malaysian politician who served as the 6th prime minister of Malaysi ...

administration and replaced with the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 following mounting criticism of the ISA, another colonial era law which had allowed for

preventive detention Preventive detention is an imprisonment that is putatively justified for non-punitive purposes, most often to prevent (further) criminal acts. Types of preventive detention There is no universally agreed definition of preventive detention, and mu ...

and

extrajudicial detention Administrative detention is arrest and detention of individuals by the state without trial. A number of jurisdictions claim that it is done for security reasons. Many countries claim to use administrative detention as a means to combat terrorism ...

. Activists and politicians have complained that the dragnet was carried out despite prime minister Najib's earlier promises to repeal the Sedition Act.

Arrests

Among the people arrested were opposition politicians

Khalid Abdul Samad Khalid bin Abdul Samad ( Jawi: خالد بن عبدالصمد; born 14 August 1957) is a Malaysian politician who served as the Minister of Federal Territories in the Pakatan Harapan (PH) administration under former Prime Minister Mahathir M ...

, N. Surendran and

Teresa Kok Teresa Kok Suh Sim (; Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: ''Kwo̍k Su-tshim''; born 31 March 1964) is a Malaysian politician who served as the Minister of Primary Industries in the Pakatan Harapan (PH) administration under former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad ...

while among non-politicians who were arrested were

Universiti Malaya The University of Malaya ( ms, Universiti Malaya, UM; abbreviated as UM or informally the Malayan University) is a public research university located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It is the oldest and highest ranking Malaysian institution of highe ...

law professor, Azmi Sharom and

Malaysiakini ''Malaysiakini'' (meaning in English: "Malaysia Now") is an online news portal published in Malay, English, Chinese and Tamil. Malaysiakini receives over 2.3 million page-views per day on desktop and mobile. Alexa ranked ''malaysiakini.com'' ...

journalist Susan Loone as well as other political activists. Muhammad Safwan Anang who was convicted under the Sedition Act on 5 September 2014 was charged earlier in 2013 together with PKR's

Tian Chua Chua Tian Chang, better known as Tian Chua (; born 21 December 1963), is a Malaysian politician who served as Special Advisor to the Minister of Works from March 2019 to February 2020 and Member of Parliament (MP) for Batu from March 2008 to ...

, PAS' Tamrin Ghafar Baba, student activist

Adam Adli Adam Adli Abd Halim (born July 3, 1989) is a Malaysian politician and student activist who has served as the Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports in the Pakatan Harapan (PH) administration under Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and Minister Hanna ...

and social activists Harris Ibrahim and

Hishamuddin Rais Hishamuddin Rais (also known under the pen-name of ''Isha'' Rais''m'') is a Malaysian film director, stand-up comedian, political and social activist. He is also notable as a columnist for several newspapers including '' Berita Minggu'', The Sun ...

in relation to their role in allegedly inciting the people to change government through illegal means and is arguably not part of this sedition dragnet. All persons listed below were arrested or charged under the Sedition Act unless specified otherwise.

Related charges

Former

Perak Perak () is a state of Malaysia on the west coast of the Malay Peninsula. Perak has land borders with the Malaysian states of Kedah to the north, Penang to the northwest, Kelantan and Pahang to the east, and Selangor to the south. Thailand's ...

chief minister

Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin Dato' Seri Ir. Mohammad Nizar bin Jamaluddin (born 17 March 1957) is a Malaysian politician and engineer who has served as Member of the Perak State Executive Council (EXCO) in the Pakatan Harapan (PH) and Barisan Nasional (BN) state admini ...

was charged for criminal defamation under Section 500 of the Penal Code in August 2014 for a statement made in a speech in 2012 about prime minister

. Meanwhile, PKR Vice President Rafizi Ramli was charged for provocation of breach of peace under Section 504 of the Penal Code.

References

{{reflist, 30em 2014 in Malaysia History of Malaysia Human rights abuses in Malaysia