| Amended Act maintained |
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| Friday, 17 August 2012 01:30pm | |
 ©The Star (Used by permission)KUALA LUMPUR: The Cabinet has decided to maintain the recently-passed Evidence Act 1950, says Information, Communications and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim. He said the Prime Minister had asked the Cabinet to discuss the issue and the Cabinet did so on Wednesday. “The Cabinet concluded that it was a fair decision as it was brought to Parliament and was debated for four hours by the Opposition as well as the Government,” he said after launching the Merdeka Taxi Advertisement and Raya cards delivery in Kg Desa Pahlawan yesterday. Rais said that once Parliament had debated it and had officially passed the Bill and gazetted it as law, “to say now to do something else is a political afterthought and not based on the legality of it”. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak tweeted and asked the Cabinet to discuss the issue following objections made over the Internet on the amendment to Section 114A of the Act, one of two made to the Act, which were gazetted in July. Rais said it was hoped that the Cabinet’s stance would be accepted. “The provision of the Act should not be doubted or feared because it is based on a presumption of fact and not a presumption of guilt. The presumption of fact is common under the rule of law such as those found in the Sedition Act, Dangerous Drug Act and Contracts Act,” he said. Anyone who is subject to the charge under Section 114A will have the right to rebut in the court of law and it is up to the court to justify what is to be done, he said. MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek said the Government needed to assure the public that Section 114A of the Act would not be abused. He said there should be clear guidelines on how it planned to enforce Section 114A as well as dos and don’ts. “The guidelines should also include how innocent victims would not be punished and what other safety features could be put in place (to protect users),” he said after chairing the MCA central committee meeting yesterday. In defending the clause, Dr Chua said it was meant to prevent abuse of the Internet by unscrupulous people, especially since cybercrimes were getting more common. He also ticked off the Opposition for “political dishonesty”, saying they should have voiced their objection during the debate in Parliament and requested for a division of vote. “It was debated and passed in Parliament without calling for block voting. In other words, they (the Opposition) went along with it,” he said |
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