Cyber Crimes Bill outrage
…says Govt sneaked sedition clause in behind PPP’s back
Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo is denying suggestions that the parliamentary Opposition supported the insertion of the unpopular clause 18 in the Cyber Crimes Bill, noting that the Government inserted the provision behind their backs.
Clause 18 of the Bill outlines that persons commit an offence of sedition when they “attempt to bring into hatred or excite disaffection towards the Government”.
According to Jagdeo, the purpose of the Bill was to protect Guyanese and their children from the dangers of cyberspace. Instead, he noted, the Bill has been converted by the Government to one that, besides the original purpose, protects its own interests.
“This is another tool available to a Government that is becoming increasingly undemocratic. This is why the entire Guyana must fight to ensure that this retrograde step to charge people for sedition, an archaic offence for what they say, which could cause disaffection.
“This provision has no place in a democratic Guyana. In a Guyana where free speech is an important part of our democracy, where freedom of expression is protected by our Constitution, this has no place in our history.”
Jagdeo admitted that the PPP dropped the ball in exercising due diligence as members of the Special Select Committee that reviewed the Bill. He made it clear that the PPP did not support the inclusion of clause 18 of the Bill and said that the Party’s presence at the Committee stage did not necessarily translate to support.
Jagdeo explained that on April 23, 2018, he asked several of his Members of Parliament (MPs) to compare the Bill with those in other jurisdictions. He had instructed another set of MPs to confer with Internet Service Providers to get their input on the Bill.
“Then I said we will meet later in the week to determine our position. The moment we discovered this clause from that meeting, we said we are opposed to this bill. So, the PPP did not approve the bill. The PPP does not support this bill.”
“You can blame us, and you can blame some of our MPs for not attending the meeting with due diligence. You can blame them for that and it will be justified, because we should have been there at the Committee level to fight this inclusion… because the inclusion took place when they were not there…this Government, surreptitiously, in their absence, inserted this undemocratic clause.”
The Bill
Laid in the National Assembly since 2016, the Cyber Crimes Bill had catered for, inter alia: illegal access to a computer system; illegal interception; illegal data interference; illegal acquisition of data; illegal system interference; unauthorised receiving or granting of access to computer data; computer-related forgery; computer-related fraud; offences affecting critical infrastructure; identity-related offences; child pornography; child luring and violation of privacy among a slew of other offences.
A Special Select Committee had been working on the Bill for the past few years and their report on the Bill was presented recently. That Committee was composed of Attorney General Basil Williams, Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan, Education Minister Nicolette Henry and parliamentarians Michael Carrington and Audwin Rutherford.
The PPP/Civic was represented by Chief Whip Gail Teixeira and parliamentarians Clement Rohee, Anil Nandlall and Gillian Persaud-Burton.
Government’s explanation for the clause has been to say it falls under national security.
