Karpal lodges report against Tajuddin over 'seditious' remark

 Lim, Karpal and Ng Shin Cheong (standing at the back).

(FZ.COM) - According to news reports, Tajuddin had warned Kuala Besut voters that Karpal could be Malaysia's first president if they allowed DAP to come to power in the country through PAS.

Karpal Singh has lodged a police report against Deputy Agriculture Minister Datuk Tajuddin Abdul Rahman for allegedly saying that the DAP chairman will lead a republic if Pakatan Rakyat controlled Putrajaya. Karpal lodged the report at the Tun HS Lee police station here, urging police to investigate Tajuddin under Section 4(1) of the Sedition Act, as well as for offences under the Penal Code.
 
Section 4(1) states that it is a criminal offence to make any oral, printed and published statements or acts with "seditious tendency". Upon conviction, one can be imprisoned for up to three years, fined up to RM5,000, or both.
 
Speaking to reporters outside the police station, Karpal said Tajuddin must be prosecuted over the statement that was allegedly made in Kuala Besut, Terengganu on July 14.
 
According to news reports, Tajuddin had warned Kuala Besut voters that Karpal could be Malaysia's first president if they allowed DAP to come to power in the country through PAS.
 
Karpal said he believed that the statement has seditious tendency, prompting him to lodge the report today.
 
"Statements like this ought not be allowed and encouraged," he said. DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang, who was present, said the statement was "irresponsible, defamatory and seditious in nature", adding that it was one of a series of seditious remarks made in the past six weeks.
 
Lim opined that the machinery of justice must not only be fair but seen to be fair, and those who uttered seditious remarks must be prosecuted.