PETALING JAYA: A Bill to tackle sensitive issues while enhancing racial and religious understanding is needed to promote unity among Malaysians, says Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye.
Supporting the Bar Council’s call for the National Harmony and Reconciliation Bill, the Malaysian Unity Foundation trustee said it is important to foster unity, reconciliation, integration and non-discrimination across the nation.
“I hope the MPs will support this call to introduce the Bill which is long overdue. And I believe this Bill can significantly contribute to fostering racial and religious understanding while discouraging hate speech and negativity,” he added.
On concerns about the freedom of speech, Lee said this fundamental right of a democratic society should be upheld.
In safeguarding this right, he said the harmony Bill could establish new guidelines to encourage positive discourse and avoid sensitive issues related to race and religion.
He said the Bill should outline measures and punishments towards creating a more harmonious and united Malaysia.
“The government can set up a special parliamentary select committee to oversee this matter and the non-governmental organisations can also provide their ideas and views,” he added, hoping that the Bill would be tabled in Parliament soon.
Malaysian Bar president Karen Cheah said the Bill was first proposed in 2010.
“It has undergone various revisions, with the last one in August 2020 before being shelved by the then-government. After the new government was elected in the 15th General Election late last year, we felt it was time to resubmit the papers, and so we made a proposal to the Law and Institutional Reform Minister (Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said) in February,” she added.
The Malaysian Bar has recently proposed three Bills, including the National Harmony and Reconciliation Bill, to replace the Sedition Act while promoting national harmony, unity, reconciliation, integration, equality and non-discrimination.
