Tourism and Culture Minister Nazri Aziz said even though the usage of the act was not agreed to by certain parties, it was a measure that could prevent racial and religious incidents from erupting in the country.

“We have a relatively strict law. The Sedition Act can be used to prevent such things from happening, especially on statements that can draw anger from a particular race,” he said.

“(Inciting racial hatred) is an offence under the act. We have other laws that can be used to regulate such actions,” he said during question time at the Dewan Rakyat today.

He was responding to an additional question from Anuar Abdul Manap (BN-Sekijang) who asked about the government’s measures to contain racial and religious divisions on social media, especially hateful comments and statements from fake accounts.

Nazri, who was answering on behalf of the prime minister’s department, said the communications and multimedia ministry played an important role to curb the increasing number of fake social media accounts created with the purpose to incite racial hatred.

He revealed he was also a victim of such a situation, where several accounts were created in his name on the internet.

The Padang Rengas MP said the Sedition Act as well as the act of monitoring by the communications and multimedia ministry would help contain any incidences that could disrupt the country’s multiracial harmony.

“I believe Malaysians are tired and do not wish to see the recurrence of the 1969 incident as it was a great lesson to us to be moderate in this multi-racial, multi-religious and multi-cultural nation,” he said.

Expressing confidence that race relations in Malaysia had improved thanks to the various efforts of the government, he however said the emergence of the internet had provided the opposite perception.

“Those days, discussions that could cause dissatisfaction (among the races) happened in isolation. Now, such expressions can be made through Facebook and read by others,” he said.