COMMENT | A view that unites the many Malaysians who are unhappy with our countless archaic and oppressive laws is that urgent reform must be undertaken by the executive and legislative branches of government to repeal them.

The cabinet is entrusted with the constitutional duty of drafting and presenting bills to Parliament, which is in turn responsible for passing these bills to become acts of Parliament.

Some of these laws are incredibly antiquated: the Official Secrets Act 1911 of England comes to mind as the model for our own version, as does the Sedition Ordinance introduced by the colonial power after the Second World War. Hence, bad laws have a long history, often pre-dating Merdeka. The trend continued for decades thereafter.

When Pakatan Harapan formed the first non-Umno coalition government...