The Malaysian Insight

THE Pakatan Harapan government should remove the “draconian” parts of the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act (Sosma) and altogether write off the wholly “repressive” Prevention of Crime Act (Amendment), or Poca, said human rights lawyer Syahredzan Johan.

Home Minister Muhyiddin Yassin recently said Sosma and Poca would be retained because they were needed but the government was amenable to amending the two laws.

The minister’s announcement has not gone down well with the people as PH has previously pledged to get rid of draconian laws, including Sosma and Poca, should it be elected into Putrajaya.

“The government should be reminded of its election pledge to abolish all draconian legislations. It is therefore disappointing that the government is now saying that it ‘needs’ these laws,” Syahredzan said.

He said while Sosma could be amended to remove its draconian aspects, Poca was irredeemable.

He said a key section of Sosma that should be removed was the provision allowing pre-trial preventive detention of 28 days.

While legislations in other jurisdictions also provided for such detention, Syahredzan said, the difference was that detention under Sosma came under the investigative powers of the police instead of the courts.

“An amendment so that the court is given oversight of the pre-trial preventive detention would prevent the abuse of these powers. 

“Similarly, there are many provisions in Sosma, which are contrary to established rules of evidence during trial, and amendments to remove these provisions will go some ways to ensure that accused persons are given a fair trial, which does not happen with Sosma in its current form.”

Sosma, which replaced the repealed Internal Security Act, allows the police to arrest without warrants persons believed to be involved in “security offences” such as waging war against the King, espionage, terrorism and other serious crimes.

Those charged with security offences cannot be bailed out while they stand trial.

Syahredzan, who is also political secretary to Iskandar Puteri MP and DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang, said removing Sosma’s draconian provisions would require a “total overhaul”.

“While it is possible to do so, it would be much easier to abolish the law and enact a replacement so that it can strike the balance between combating terrorism and upholding the rule of law.”

As for Poca, which allowed detention without trial, Syahredzan said “no amount of amendments can rescue Poca from being a draconian and repressive law”.

Poca allows the police to arrest a person without a warrant if the police has reason to believe there are grounds to justify an inquiry into the detained person.

The person can be detained up to 60 days with the approval of senior police officers. After this period, the detainee is presented to the Crime Prevention Board, which would decide whether to release or  subject the person to house arrest or electronic monitoring.

The board may also direct the person to serve a two-year detention, a period that can be renewed for a further period not exceeding two years at a time. 

“Such legislation is an affront to the rule of law and human rights, and has no place in a democratic nation such as ours.

“It is also not needed as our police force is capable and has enough resources to investigate gangsterism-related offences, for the public prosecutor to charge the offenders in court,” Syahredzan said. – January 1, 2019.