TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Malaysia extends anti-terrorism law for another 5 years
The enforcement of the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act (Sosma) has been extended for another five years in Malaysia after a recent heated debate between its lawmakers.
Change Size
Pro-democracy activists wave "Bersih 5" flags in Sekinchan, Malaysia, in this file photo dated on Oct. 15, 2016. Bersih movement chairman Maria Chin Abdullah was detained for 11 days under the controversial security act called Sosma by Malaysian authorities in last November. (AP/Lim Huey Teng)
T
he enforcement of the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act (Sosma) has been extended for another five years in Malaysia after a recent lively debate.
The extension to the Act was allowed after it was passed on late Tuesday evening with a bloc vote of 93 members of Malaysian Parliament supporting the motion, while 77 rejected it.
Opposition lawmakers had voiced their disagreement over the motion, continuously interjecting as Deputy Home Minister Nur Jazlan Mohamed tried to wind up debate on it that night.
Despite a warning by Speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia to the lawmakers not to disrupt Nur Jazlan’s reply, they continued to interrupt him.
As the clock slowly ticked towards 11 p.m., Pandikar finally stepped in and ordered for the matter to be put to the vote.
Opposition lawmakers then requested for a bloc vote.
Earlier during the debate, lawmakers had questioned the need for the Act to be extended for another five years, with some arguing that it had been abused and even used against politicians.
However, Nur Jazlan said Sosma was needed to protect national security.
Disagreeing with the accusation that people had been unlawfully held under Sosma, he said between 2012 and this year, 989 people were detained.
“Out of this, 376 people have been released. So, the question that these people have been detained for a long period of time does not arise.
“A total of 139 people are also undergoing trial while 502 people have been sentenced,” he said.
Nur Jazlan also said that the sunset clause, which required for Sosma’s extension to be brought to the Parliament every five years and acted as a review of the power of the police, was good.
“The Government is not cruel. We allow the Parliament to decide. If we wanted to continue to detain people, we would not have this sunset clause,” he said.
Sosma came into effect on July 31, 2012. The five-year extension term will begin from July 31.
This article appeared on The Star newspaper website, which is a member of Asia News Network and a media partner of The Jakarta Post
