KUALA LUMPUR: The Legal Affairs Division of the Prime Minister's Department has been instructed to study and review several articles of legislation including 147 laws deemed "archaic".
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said the review is meant to establish whether to amend or to abolish the "archaic" laws.
This, said the prime minister, was among the significant legal transformations undertaken by the government which is necessary following developments and changes in time.
Transformation and improvement to the country's legal system, he said, will also benefit the welfare and wellbeing of the people.
"For example, rapid advancements in digital technology has made existing laws irrelevant and to some extent, backwards, due to the changes in time.
"One of them is the Common Gaming Houses Act 1953, which only covers enforcement on gambling activities involving (physical) premises but not online gambling.
"Therefore, legal transformation is necessary since laws in the country must move together with the change in time," he said in his speech at Universiti Malaya's (UM) Faculty of Law Golden Jubilee Celebration, here, today.
Present were Chief Justice Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat, UM vice-chancellor Prof Datuk Dr Mohd Hamdi Abd Shukor and UM Faculty of Law Dean Assoc Prof Dr Johan Shamsuddin Sabaruddin.
Also in attendance was UM Faculty of Law Alumni Association (Parfum) president Tan Sri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil.
Ismail Sabri was the ninth cohort of the UM Faculty of Law. He was also the first graduate from the faculty to be appointed to the highest position in the country's administration.
The government, said Ismail Sabri, has also implemented several proactive measures to strengthen laws in the country.
Apart from the proposed Bill on Anti-Party Hopping and Political Funding, other proactive measures include the move to abolish the mandatory death sentence.
He also spoke on the confusion elicited from the announcement by the government to abolish the mandatory death sentence.
"The government has not completely abolished the death penalty. Instead, we rely on the power and discretion of judges to decide whether a person who has been convicted of committing an offence should be sentenced to death or subjected to another alternative punishment," he said.
Other proactive measures undertaken by the government, he said, include the doctrine on separation of powers between the country's executive and judiciary bodies.
"As someone with a legal background, I deeply respect the principles as outlined in the doctrine on the separation of powers.
"Therefore, I want to assure that the government will continue to protect the freedom of the legislative and the judiciary."