New Harmony Bill draft in the works

Kurup: Proposed law not shelved

KOTA KINABALU: A new version of the National Harmony and Reconciliation Bill is being drafted, after three earlier versions were rejected by the Government.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Tan Sri Joseph Kurup said certain provisions in the earlier versions were reviewed as they contradicted the Constitution.

He said that was why they went back to the drawing board and redrafted it to address these issues, adding that the Bill had not been shelved.

“Personally, I hope we table the Bill during the upcoming parliamentary sitting, but we still have to go through various steps, including tabling it in Cabinet first,” Kurup said after opening an interfaith dialogue at the Universiti Malaysia Sabah campus.

He said the latest version would, among others, provide for those who utter seditious words to undergo counselling and that those who carry out actions that are detrimental to national harmony would also face legal action.

The Bill was proposed by the National Unity Consultative Council (NUCC), launched by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak in 2014 to address issues such as racial and religious polarisation, disunity and discrimination in an effort to achieve national unity.

Recent developments, which had centred on religious discrimination in the country, have revived calls for the Bill to be reconsidered by Putrajaya.

Asli Centre for Public Studies chairman Tan Sri Ramon Navaratnam called for the revival of the Bill, which he said appeared to be shelved.

He said the Bill was vital to curb discrimination and extremism, adding that it was among three legislations proposed in the national unity blueprint by the NUCC.

Malaysia Crime Prevention Foundation senior vicechairman Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye, who is a former NUCC member, said Putrajaya needed to take another look at the Bill and hoped the politicians could push for it to be reconsidered.