Petaling Jaya 13/08/2015 - Forum “Section 124B: An affront to parliamentary democracy” <br /> <br />Many of those recently investigated under a law on activity detrimental to parliamentary democracy are actually doing work that is aimed at improving the country’s political system, speaker at a forum last night said. <br /> <br />These included anti-graft investigators and journalists who are probing and exposing wrongdoing at the highest levels of government so that citizens are well-informed of what their politicians are doing, said law professor Dr Azmi Sharom. <br /> <br />“In a parliamentary democracy people vote in their leaders. When someone exposes wrongdoing by the government, the people will be better informed when they go to vote. <br /> <br />“So if this is good for parliamentary democracy, then why are they being detained for ‘acts detrimental to parliamentary democracy'?” said Azmi, who was a speaker at the forum titled, “Section 124B: An affront to parliamentary democracy”, last night. <br /> <br />Azmi was referring to the recent arrests of Putrajaya’s critics, which includes politicians and activists, over the past month under the new Section 124B of the Penal Code. <br /> <br />Section 124B states that anyone carrying out, by any means, directly or indirectly, any “activity detrimental to parliamentary democracy” can be jailed up to 20 years if convicted. <br /> <br />Among some of those being investigated under Section 124B are activists in the Bersih 4 rally and parliamentarians who have been vocal over the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) financial scandal. <br /> <br />Several Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) officers had also been investigated under Section 124B for supposedly leaking information related to several probes into 1MDB.
