Malaysia: Where government uses the law to suppress the opposition

Malaysia has been governed by the same political party since gaining independence from Great Briton in 1965.   Many of the current laws were codified under colonial rule one of those laws the Sedition Act has been used to suppress any and all opposition.   Most recently its been used to arrest members of the opposition which have held peaceful demonstrations claiming fraud and vote manipulation by the ruling party.

 The Sedition Act in Malaysia is a law prohibiting discourse deemed as seditious. The act was originally enacted by the colonial authorities ofBritish Malaya in 1948. The act criminalises speech with "seditious tendency", including that which would "bring into hatred or contempt or to excite disaffection against" the government or engender "feelings of ill-will and hostility between different races". The meaning of "seditious tendency" is defined in section 3 of the Sedition Act 1948 and in substance it is similar to the English common law definition of sedition, with modifications to suit local circumstances.^[1] The Malaysian definition includes the questioning of certain portions of the Constitution of Malaysia, namely those pertaining to the Malaysian social contract, such as Article 153, which deals with special rights for the bumiputra(Malays and other indigenous peoples, who comprise over half the Malaysian population).

Student held on sedition charge in Malaysia

Malaysian authorities have detained two anti-government figures and charged a student activist with sedition, renewing the debate surrounding the government's use of the law.
Adam Adli Halim, 24, was charged under the Sedition Act over a statement made at a public post-election forum on May 13, and had been held in custody for five days until he was released on bail on Thursday, his lawyer Fadiah Nadwa Fikri said.
The student apparently called for people to "go down to the streets to seize back our power" while addressing the forum.
Opposition activists have staged numerous peaceful demonstrations since the May 5 general elections, which the National Front coalition won with a weakened parliamentary majority.