KUALA LUMPUR – The extension of Section 4(5) of the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (Sosma) – which grants police the power to detain individuals for up to 28 days remains a glaring violation of human liberty in the country, said opposition lawmakers.
They expressed concern that the law could potentially be abused for political reasons, enabling authorities to detain anyone for unspecified reasons or justifications.
Speaking to The Vibes, Klang MP Charles Santiago said the law effectively resembles the defunct Internal Security Act, which allows for detention without trial or criminal charges under limited, legally defined circumstances.
Once you are detained under Sosma, you are effectively incommunicado, nobody can reach you and you can’t reach anyone, even your lawyers will have difficulties reaching you,” he said, adding that there were concerns that detainees would be kept in the dark over where they are being detained.
Santiago also stressed Sosma would give the authorities carte blanche to detain any persons they deemed troublesome.
“Anyone can be charged under Sosma. You think you won’t be charged but Sosma could be used for political reasons,” he said.
The opposition lawmaker was commenting on the remarks made by Dewan Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Azhar Azizan Harun on Wednesday that he would never commit crimes that would result in him being charged under Sosma.
The speaker was responding to Puchong MP Gobind Singh Deo, who suggested if the former was arrested under Sosma, he too would demand justice and appropriate treatment.
Last Wednesday, the Dewan Rakyat passed the motion to extend Section 4(5) of Sosma for another five years.
The extension will come into effect from July 31, 2022.
The motion was passed via bloc voting where 105 MPs voted in the affirmative compared to 83 who voted no, while 32 were absent.
Prior to the bloc voting, fierce debate erupted over the motion, with government lawmakers mostly arguing the law is necessary to enable police to conduct investigations on complicated cases and organised crime.
However, this was heavily disputed by the opposition bloc who argued that detainees may suffer police brutality under detention.
Ipoh Barat MP M. Kulasegaran also said the law allows for police to adopt “an arrest now, investigate later,” attitude.
“It should be the other way around. This opens the law to abuse at so many levels.
“With all the technological advances today, police have a multitude of monitoring tools to conduct much more effective investigations.
They should know the details of the supposed crime instead of doing the investigation after the detention,” he said to The Vibes.
Despite numerous assurances given in Parliament by government lawmakers and even Home Minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin, Kulasegaran said this is ultimately useless as the provision allowing up to 28 days’ detention still remains under the law.
Sepang MP Mohamed Hanipa Maidin also cautioned that the law gives enormous powers to prosecuting teams in order to help them win trials at all costs.
“The law does not really care about the liberty of the accused person even if he is found not guilty by the court.
“He is denied from immediately reaping the fruits of the acquittal judgement in his favour,” he said.
“The judges’ hands are tied down so much that they are subservient to the prosecution’s commands,” he said. – The Vibes, July 22, 2022
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