CHAIRMAN of the Alliance for Change and Minister of Public Security, Khemraj Ramjattan said the sedition clause in the Cybercrime Bill is necessary, saying that it is already part of the country’s existing laws.

In an interview with reporters on Thursday on the sidelines of the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) workshop being held at the Pegasus Hotel, Ramjattan argued that the sedition clause is necessary. “It is necessary in my opinion,” Minister Ramjattan said, contending that a sedition clause is already part of the country’s existing laws. Section 320 of the Criminal Law Offences Act has Seditious Libel as an offence, the Minister further pointed out while noting that Section 18 of the Cybercrime Bill will simply complement the existing law.

“We have in the existing common law of Guyana—sedition–and the sedition is identical to what we have, except now because of this new stratosphere called…the internet, we have to make it a crime there,” he posited. Cognisant of the concerns being raised that the clause will criminalise persons criticising the government, the public security minister said that is not the case, noting that the clause in itself has limitation. “We were very careful to ensure that we put a sub paragraph there that says that if you are criticising the government and all of that, it is not sedition,” Minister Ramjattan said.

Section 18 (1) of the Cybercrime Bill states that a person commits an offence of sedition if the person, whether in or out of Guyana, intentionally publishes, transmits or circulates by use of a computer system a statement or words, whether spoken or written, a text, video, image, sign, visible representation, or other thing, that “brings or attempts to bring into hatred or contempt, or excites or attempts to excite disaffection towards the government established by law in Guyana.”

Minister Ramjattan reminded that all parties represented in the National Assembly had Members of Parliament sitting on the Special Select Committee that considered the Cybercrime Bill including Section 18.

Attorney General, Basil Williams said the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) and the Alliance for Change (AFC) are now objecting to the sedition clause of the Cybercrime Bill after their Parliamentary Representatives sat and endorsed the bill at the level of the Parliamentary Select Committee. For him, it is a case of negligence and poor leadership. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) workshop being held in collaboration with the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Government of Guyana at the Pegasus Hotel on Thursday, Minister Williams alluded to the fact that the bill was drafted more than two years ago.

“The clause is there for well over two years, and it appears as though only the Leader of the Opposition has an issue with it because the rest of his party never objected to it,” Minister Williams said. He acknowledged too that the AFC Members of Parliament also sat on the Committee. Leader of the AFC, Raphael Trotman is now objecting to the sedition clause, reportedly saying that his party will vote against the clause if it is not deleted.
But the Attorney General is maintaining that “everyone had ample time” to consider the clauses of the Bill including Section 18. “The fact that there has been no objection well over two years, everyone who is saying no now, had representatives there. They are negligent. It is poor leadership,” Williams said.

According to him, Cabinet is now reviewing the sedition clause before determining the way forward. But while the leader of the AFC has reportedly said that the party’s Members of Parliament will vote against the sedition clause if it remains part of the Cybercrime Bill, it is clear that he will not get the support of Public Security Minister, Khemraj Ramjattan, an executive member of the AFC. There have been a number of groups coming out against the sedition clause of the bill, although saying that they support the intent of the proposed legislation.