Law should not be made to suppress voice: webinar
Politicians and activists at a webinar said on Tuesday that any law should be enacted to uphold the public interest instead of suppressing their voices.
The Centre for Governance Studies organised the webinar ‘Digital to Cyber Security Act: thoughts of the politicians’ to discuss experiences of victims and dimensions of the newly adopted Cyber Security Act 2023.
‘The Cyber Security Act is the most draconian law that Bangladesh has formulated currently,’ argued Golam Maula Rony, a former parliamentarian and a leader from the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party.
He also condemned the process of drafting the Digital Security Act by practicing lawyers who had shallow knowledge of lawmaking.
Nazrul Islam Babu, an Awami League parliamentarian, said that Bangladesh evolved into a ‘Digital Bangladesh’ by its unprecedented development in recent years.
Thus, the creation of ‘The Digital Security Act 2018’ is part of that progress only, he added.
Ruhin Hossain Prince, general secretary of the Communist Party of Bangladesh, said that the demand to abolish ‘the Digital Security Act 2018’ was rejected by the government and instead just a few changes were brought to a few clauses under the law.
‘The DSA was introduced to sustain the regime of fear among the people by excluding the people,’ he said.
Zonayed Saki, chief coordinator of the Ganosamhati Andolan, said that a ‘culture of totalitarian regime’ was prevailing in the country where no one was allowed to criticise the government actions.
The DSA is the perfect example of suppressing common people’s voice legally, Saki added.
Nurul Haque Nur, the president of Gono Odhikar Parishad, said that a dysfunctional state system was prevailing in the country where people got arrested for ‘cases in their absence’.
Out of 10 non-bailable clauses, only four have been changed but are not properly followed yet, he said.
The webinar was chaired by Manjur A Chowdhury, also the chairman of the CGS, and moderated by Zillur Rahman, its executive director.
Zillur Rahman said that cases filed under the Digital Security Act 2018 were still running despite reforming the law as the Cyber Security Act 2023.
He stated that this law could be misinterpreted by anyone to punish individuals such as politicians and journalists.
Even a serving Supreme Court Justice, Sheikh Hassan Arif, on Monday at a programme termed the CSA as dangerous if it was not applied judiciously.
Manjur A Chowdhury in his concluding speech said that all laws drafted in the country were not in favour of public interest and the Indemnity Ordinance 1975 was a glaring example in this regard.
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