Both seditious and false is the charge of continuing to question the last king’s parameters of integrity given Muhyiddin Yassin’s speech in which he targets the last monarch of Malaysia sithiwicze intam government. Lifetime of office of muhiyidin is from march 2020 to august 2021, and has chanced a plea of not guilty.
Situational context of the charges
As reported by the Associated Press, he will answer on the charges for speech provoked the voters during by election campaign which took place in Kelantan last month. Every five years, Malaysia’s monarchy rotates amongst the State’s Rulers of nine Malay Ethnic states since the country gained independence from colonial rule in 1957. Although it is largely ceremonial, the monarchy is highly revered amid the predominantly Islamic nation.
Clearing the air, in a speech made on August 14, Muhyiddin asked why Sultan Abdullah whom was king at the time, did not make him prime minister after the parliament won decisively by no single party after elections held in November 2022.
Muhidin argued, that his position was supported by a lot of lawmakers. In place of this a working government was formed with Anwar Ibrahim being the prime minister who gathered the support of other parties.
Pahang’s Sultan Abdullah who was removed on January 30 this year did not make any remarks about the sedition allegations which formed his dismissal for a period of time. The Sultan is no more. His son posted on Muhyiddin comments made against him as a ruler, deficting them as & distorting comments which can postpone institutions of dawn.
Muhyiddin alleged that he had received inquiries from the police after receiving complaints against her but claimed that he never disrespected the royal family. He claimed that those statements were true, and that he had furnished 115 of the 222 representatives of the parliament with a sworn affidavit verifying their support.
Legal and political context
Political analyst Zaid Malek of Lawyers for Liberty, a non-governmental human rights law reform group, condemned the application of the old Sedition Act to charge Muhyiddin. ‘The king is a constitutional monarch, not a lord. His powers can therefore be subjected to discourse, examined or even criticized. This is the very heart of constitutional monarchy as we know it,’ he stressed.
The Sedition Act was created by the British after World War II in 1948. Since then, Speech or actions containing a concealed seditious tendency are included among the acts which are deemed crime by the Act which includes provisions relating to promotion of anti-national or antimonarchical feelings and inter-communal incitement. Malek noted: “Even questioning or criticising the use of political power as vested in the constitutional monarch wasn’t seditious.”
At the same time, Malek also noticed that Anwar already many times said that he will repeal Protective Sedition Act Bandan yes Yes it was known from the start that it is a protective cover against dissent.
Muhyiddin, 77 has a maximum penalty of three years imprisonment in addition to or without any fines, if convicted. He is also grappling with charges of $ that he contend is politically directed in nature.
This is the second former leader of Malaysia who has been charged with crimes. Ex-prime Minister Najib Razak who lost general elections in 2018 is serving a 12-year in-prison sentence since 2022, though several graft trials against him remain ongoing.
