"Government"  means the Government of Malaysia and of any State in Malaysia;

  "publication"  includes all written or printed matter and everything whether of a nature similar to written or printed matter or not containing any visible representation or by its form, shape or in any other manner capable of suggesting words or ideas, and every copy and reproduction or substantial reproduction of any publication;

  "Ruler"  means the Yang di-Pertuan Agong or the Ruler or Yang di- Pertua Negeri of any State in Malaysia;

  "seditious"  when applied to or used in respect of any act, speech, words, publication or other thing qualifies the act, speech, words, publication or other thing as one having a seditious tendency;

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3 -3. Seditious tendency.

(1) A "seditious tendency" is a tendency -

(a) to bring into hatred or contempt or to excite disaffection against any Ruler or against any Government;

(b) to excite the subjects of any Ruler or the inhabitants of any territory governed by any Government to attempt to procure in the territory of the Ruler or governed by the Government, the alteration, otherwise than by lawful means, of any matter as by law established;

(c) to bring into hatred or contempt or to excite disaffection against the administration of justice in Malaysia or in any State;

(d) to raise discontent or disaffection amongst the subjects of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong or of the Ruler of any State or amongst the inhabitants of Malaysia or of any State;

(e) to promote feelings of ill-will and hostility between different races or classes of the population of Malaysia; or

(f) t

4 -4. Offences.

(1) Any person who -

(a) does or attempts to do, or makes any preparation to do, or conspires with any person to do, any act which has or which would, if done, have a seditious tendency;

(b) utters any seditious words;

(c) prints, publishes, sells, offers for sale, distributes or reproduces any seditious publication; or

(d) imports any seditious publication,

shall be guilty of an offence and shall, on conviction, be liable for a first offence to a fine not exceeding five thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years or to both, and, for a subsequent offence, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years; and any seditious publication found in the possession of the person or used in evidence at his trial shall be forfeited and may be destroyed or otherwise disposed of as the court directs.

(2) Any person who wit

5 -5. Legal proceedings.

No person shall be prosecuted for an offence under section 4 without the written consent of the Public Prosecutor. In such written consent the Public Prosecutor may designate any court within Malaysia to be the court of trial.

6 -6. Evidence.

(1) Notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in the Evidence Act (Act 56) , no person shall be convicted of an offeace under section 4 on the uncorroborated testimony of one witness.

(2) No person shall be convicted of any offence referred to in section 4(1) (c) or (d) if the person proves that the publication in respect of which he is charged was printed, published, sold, offered for sale, distributed, reproduced or imported (as the case may be) without his authority, consent and knowledge and without any want of due care or caution on his part, or that he did not know and had no reason to believe that the publication had a seditious tendency.

7 -7. Innocent receiver of seditious publication.

Any person to whom any seditious publication is sent without his knowledge or privity shall forthwith as soon as the nature of its contents has become known to him deliver the publication to the officer in charge of a police district or, in Sabah and Sarawak, to an administrative officer or to the officer in charge of the nearest police station, and any person who complies with the provisions of this section shall not be liable to be convicted for having in his possession the publication:

Provided that in any proceedings against that person the court shall presume until the contrary be shown that the person knew the contents of the publication at the time it first came into his possession.

8 -8. Issue of search warrant.

(1) A Magistrate may issue a warrant empowering any police officer, not below the rank of Inspector, to enter upon any premises where any seditious publication is known or is reasonably suspected to be and to search therein for any seditious publication.

(2) Whenever it appears to any police officer not below the rank of Assistant Superintendent that there is reasonable cause to believe that in any premises there is concealed or deposited any seditious publication, and he has reasonable grounds for believing that, by reason of the delay which would be entailed by obtaining a search warrant, the object of the search is likely to be frustrated, he may enter and search the premises as if he were empowered to do so by a warrant issued under subsection (1).

9 -9. Suspension of newspaper containing seditious matter.

(1) Whenever any person is convicted of publishing in any newspaper any matter having a seditious tendency, the court may, if it thinks fit, either in lieu of or in addition to any other punishment, make orders as to all or any of the following matters:

(a) prohibiting, either absolutely or except on conditions to be specified in the order, for any period not exceeding one year from the date of the order, the future publication of that newspaper;

(b) prohibiting, either absolutely or except on conditions to be specified in the order, for the period aforesaid, the publisher, proprietor, or editor of that newspaper or from publishing, editing or writing for any newspaper, or from assisting, whether with money or money’s worth, material, personal service, or otherwise in the publication, editing, or production of any newspaper; and

(c) that for the period aforesaid any printi

10 -10. Power of court to prohibit circulation of seditious publications.

(1) Whenever on the application of the Public Prosecutor it is shown to the satisfaction of the court that the issue or circulation of a seditious publication is or if commenced or continued would be likely to lead to unlawful violence, or appears to have the object of promoting feeling of hostility between different classes or races of the community, the court shall make an order (in this section called a "prohibition order") prohibiting the issuing and circulation of that publication (in this section called a "prohibited publication") and requiring every person having any copy of the prohibited publication in his possession, power, or control forthwith to deliver every such copy into the custody of the police.

(2) An order under this section may be made ex parte on the application of the Public Prosecutor in chambers.

(3) It shall be sufficient if the order so describes the prohibited publication that it can be identified by

11 -11. Arrest without warrant.

Any police officer not below the rank of Inspector may arrest without warrant any person found committing or reasonably suspected of committing or of having committed or of attempting to commit or of procuring or abetting any person to commit any offence against this Act, or reasonably suspected of the unlawful possession of any thing liable to forfeiture thereunder.