Speech by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Kota Melaka, Lim Kit Siang, at the 1986Official Secrets Act Amendment Bill public protest meeting organised by the DAP Oppose Official Secrets Act Amendment (OOSAA) Action Committee at MTUC Building on Sunday, 23rd March 1986 at 9 p.m.
The OSA Amendment 1986 is the greatest threat to human rights and democratic freedoms of Malaysians since the 1981 Societies Act amendment
This is the first public protest meeting to be held to protest against the 1986 Official Secrets Act Amendment Bill which will make it a mandatory minimum one-year jail sentence for any offence under the Act. It threatens whatever is left of press freedom in Malaysia, and the entire system of parliamentary democracy itself.
The OSA Amendment 1986 is the greatest challenge to human rights and democratic freedoms of Malaysians since the 1981 Societies Act Amendment, for it will bring about a totally controlled press and completely closed society.
It will strike directly at the Constitutional guarantee of freedom of speech and expression, reducing newspapers to government gazettes and political leaders to ‘yes men’.
It is not only the journalists and the NUJ who must stand u and oppose this pernicious and draconian Bill. Every Malaysian who cherish freedom and democracy must join forces to ensure that this Bill is not put on the Statute books.
All concerned organisations and individuals should concentrate their campaign to oppose the OSA on the Members of Parliament, who will be asked to approve the Bill in less than two weeks’ time. MPs, of whatever party affiliation, must be made to understand that this is an issue which transcends party lines, as it concerns the very life and death of democracy itself.
MPs who are prepared to vote in support of the OSA Amendment Bill must be condemned as dangers to democracy, who do not deserve voter support for their re-election in the coming general elections. Political parties must similarly be made to realise that the OSA Amendment Bill is a litmus test as to whether they could be trusted with support in the coming general elections.
If MPs and political parties are made to realise that in the coming general elections, their stand on the OSA Amendment Bill will determine voter decisions in the coming general elections, then they will be forced to think hard before they continue to be ‘Yes men’ in Parliament or ‘Yes Parties’ in the Barisan Nasional.
There is still insufficient knowledge and awareness of the perniiciousness of the OSA Bill among the Malaysian public. Every society, organisation, trade union must take it upon itself to organise public meetings involving members as well as non-members to disseminate to the widest extent information about the OSA Bill, why a stand for freedom and democracy by every Malaysian must be taken.
It is possible that with the closeness of the coming general elections, the Barisan Nasional government may make a tactical retreat to defer the Official Secrets Act Amendment till after the general elections. If the government does this, hoping that the OSA Bill will not generate too much public hostility against Barisan Nasional component parties and candidates,
The people must make it clear that they cannot accept this as satisfactory. There must be a unequivocal commitment by the Government that it will not in any future date seek to introduce any mandatory minimum jail sentence for offences under the OSA.