Alvin-Vivian perfect scapegoat for Umno hardliners to justify call to retain Sedition Act

VIDEO INSERTED KUALA LUMPUR - As a boorish lawmaker made use of them to score brownie points in Parliament, Alvin Tan and Vivian Lee must feel as like they have been hit by a double whammy on further unpleasant news that the Attorney General has confirmed he is considering investigating them under the country's oppressive Sedition Act, which can carry long jail sentences.

Not only have the young couple angered Muslims with an insensitive greeting during the holy Ramadan month, which incidentally is also a month of soul searching and forgiveness, their action comes right smack in the middle of a political debate on whether Prime Minister Najib Razak's Umno government should retain the Sedition Act and introduce replacement laws for the repealed the Emergency Ordinance and Internal Security Act.

"What Alvin and Vivian did was not right but two wrongs don't make a right. Given Umno's Machiavellian track record, I won't be surprised if they exploit the issue to justify the hardliners' wishes but this will embarrass Najib," MP for Batu Tian Chua told Malaysia Chronicle.

Too absurd to pass unnoticed

His warning was ironical given that Bung Mokhtar Radin, the Kinabatangan MP, has accused the Opposition's DAP party of having masterminded the controversial Ramadan greeting from Alvin and Vivian.

The absurdity of Bung's statement not only angered DAP members but raised eyebrows as to what new 'sandiwara' or drama was Umno trying to script.

"They should be immediately arrested and charged, don't allow them to walk free. I realise this trend happening after the 13th general election, perhaps this is all being sponsored by DAP," Bung told Parliament this morning, raising a ruckus as DAP lawmakers protested and demanded he showed proof.

Just voicing out the wishes of the grassroots

Malaysia's Sedition Act has long been criticized for giving the government too much power over suspects and is the last major draconian law still available to Najib and his Umno party to wield. They have been accused of abusing the Sedition Act to detain Opposition politicians on flimsy grounds, often using bare allegations to pin charges of inciting and provoking racial and religious hatred on their rivals.

In multi-racial Malaysia, the tension amongst the ethnic groups have been on the rise due largely to the brand of race-based and religion-based politicking preached by Umno leaders including former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, who ruled from 1981 to 2003 and is the patron of extremist ultra-Malay group Perkasa.

And although Najib had last year proposed to replace the Sedition Act with the National Harmony Act, Home Minister Zahid Hamidi recently came out to slam the proposal. The Cabinet has since met and decided to back Najib's decision to move onto the National Harmony Act, but concerns are high that the new law may be just as oppressive or even worse.

There has also been speculation that Zahid's demand to retain the Sedition Act was a signal from the Umno right-wingers to Najib that they did not want any reforms to liberalize the economy, which is slanted in the favor of the Malays who form 55% of the country's 28 million population, and to step up their party's 'Malay supremacy' brand of politicking instead of trying level the playing field.

"Old fashioned (laughs), I am throwing my opinion based on the feedback I received from the grassroots and these are the true feelings of the grassroots with regards to the EO for instance. And as far as the Sedition Act is concerned, these are the feelings among the grass root leaders as well as they would like to retain the four points stipulated in the Constitution," Zahid had told Malaysia Chronicle at Parliament House on Tuesday when asked why he had thrown a cat among the pigeons with his sudden call to maintain the archaic Act.

The four core aspects that Zahid referred to are the special rights of Malays, the status of Malay rulers, the status of Islam as the Federal religion and the status of Bahasa Melayu as the national language.  Zahid had said he wanted the Sedition Act retained so that these issues would not be questioned. Critics have however expressed concern over the interpretation and fear the Act would be abused to arbitrarily jail dissidents and Opposition members.

Un-Malaysian but so are Zahid's "grassroots"

Meanwhile, in the Alvin-Vivian case, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng had just a day ago called the couple's use of pork - which is taboo to Muslims - to wish followers of the religion a happy fasting month "un-Malaysian".

"That is wrong. They deserve to be punished. There is no doubt about it. It is completely un-Malaysian. They are a complete disgrace," Guan Eng, who is also the Penang Chief Minister, told Malaysia Chronicle at the Parliament House on Monday.

Earlier this morning, Attorney-General Gani Patail confirmed that the duo, who shocked the nation and neighboring Singapore with an explicit sex video in 2012, could be investigated under the Sedition Act.

"Yes, we will consider investigating them under the Sedition Act," Abdul Gani said at a press conference on Tuesday. "Apart from the Sedition Act they can be also charged under the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998, which carries a lesser sentence."

Malaysia Chronicle