Sedition Act (Malaysia)

Sedition Act 1948
An Act to provide for the punishment of sedition.
Citation	Act 15
Territorial extent	Malaysia
Date enacted	1948 (Ordinance No. 14 of 1948) Revised: 1969 (Act 15 w.e.f. 14 April 1970)
Date effective	Peninsular Malaysia–19 July 1948, Ord. No. 14 of 1948; Sabah–28 May 1964, L.N. 149/1964; Sarawak–20 November 1969, P.U. (A) 476/1969
Amendments
Federal Constitution (Modification of Laws) (Ordinances and Proclamations) Order 1958 [L.N. 332/1958] Modification of Laws (Sedition) (Extension and Modification) Order 1964 [L.N. 149/1964] Modification of Laws (Sedition) (Extension and Modification) Order 1969 [P.U. (A) 476/1969] Emergency (Essential Powers) Ordinance No. 45, 1970 [P.U. (A) 282/1970] Malaysian Currency (Ringgit) Act 1975 [Act 160] Sedition (Amendment) Act 2015 [Act A1485]
Keywords
Lèse-majesté, sedition
Status: In force

The Sedition Act 1948 (Malay: 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 The act was originally enacted by the colonial authorities of British Malaya in 1948. The act criminalises speech with "seditious tendency", including that which would "bring into hatred or contempt or to excite disaffection against" the government or engender "feelings of ill-will and hostility between different races". The meaning of "seditious tendency" is defined in section 3 of the Sedition Act 1948 and in substance it is similar to the English common law definition of sedition, with modifications to suit local circumstances. The Malaysian definition includes the questioning of certain portions of the Constitution of Malaysia, namely those pertaining to the Malaysian social contract, such as Article 153, which deals with special rights for the bumiputra (Malays and other indigenous peoples, who comprise over half the Malaysian population).

The Sedition Act 1948, in its current form (4 June 2015), consists of 11 sections and no schedule (including 6 amendments), without separate Part.

The law was introduced by the British in 1948, the same year that the autonomous Federation of Malaya came into being, with the intent of curbing opposition to colonial rule. The law remained on the statute books through independence in 1957, and the merger with Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore that formed Malaysia.

The Federal Constitution of Malaya and later Malaysia permitted Parliament to impose restrictions on the freedom of speech granted by the Constitution. After the May 13 Incident, when racial riots in the capital of Kuala Lumpur led to at least 200 deaths, the government amended the Constitution to expand the scope of limitations on freedom of speech. The Constitution (Amendment) Act 1971 named Articles 152, 153, and 181, and also Part III of the Constitution as specially protected, permitting Parliament to pass legislation that would limit dissent with regard to these provisions pertaining to the social contract. (The social contract is essentially a quid pro quo agreement between the Malay and non-Malay citizens of Peninsular Malaysia; in return for granting the non-Malays citizenship at independence, symbols of Malay authority such as the Malay monarchy became national symbols, and the Malays were granted special economic privileges.) With this new power, Parliament then amended the Sedition Act accordingly. The new restrictions also applied to Members of Parliament, overruling Parliamentary immunity; at the same time, Article 159, which governs Constitutional amendments, was amended to entrench the "sensitive" Constitutional provisions; in addition to the consent of Parliament, any changes to the "sensitive" portions of the Constitution would now have to pass the Conference of Rulers, a body comprising the monarchs of the Malay states.

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