Lee: Sedition challenge soon

BY today a bill to challenge the Sedition Act should qualify to be included on the order paper for the next sitting of the House of Representatives, Opposition chief whip David Lee told reporters last Friday.

Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar has drafted a Sedition Repeal Bill 2019 to call for the complete revocation of the Sedition Act. Much public debate ensued on the act’s relevance to today’s society after the police recently arrested and charged Tobago House of Assembly minority leader Watson Duke over his choice of words to describe his struggle for labour rights as Public Services Association (PSA) leader. The sedition issue also previously came to light when Maha Sabha leader Sat Maharaj made disparaging remarks about Tobagonian men during his TV/Radio Jaagriti broadcast.

The Opposition in a recent statement said Persad-Bissessar’s private member’s bill has already been circulated to MPs by the Clerk of the House.

The explanatory note to the bill says the Sedition Act, which came into force in April 1920, is inimical to the tenets of a modern constitutional democracy.

Persad-Bissessar was unable to attend last Friday’s House sitting due to her having caught the flu, Lee told reporters.