SOLYMONE BLOG: NO COUNTRY AN ISLAND NOT EVEN MALAYSIA?

Exclusive: Repealing the Sedition Act or not may be the internal affair of Malaysia when it is debated.

However, if human rights are likely to be infringed, no country is an island, says the United States Ambassador to Malaysia Joseph Y Yun(photo).

Yun said this when speaking on the much debated move to repeal Malaysia’s Sedition Act, in an exclusive interview with Malaysiakini to mark the year end.

“This is something really an internal affair in this country. And I mean, clearly for the government to have this change of position on an issue that is important to basic freedom, freedom of speech and dealing with the very plural society of Malaysia, there must be a good reason.”

He said Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s U-turn on his promise to repeal the Sedition Act at the recent Umno annual general meeting is of concern to the US because Sedition Act, if wielded “too far”, would infringe on human rights.