PETALING JAYA: Home minister Hamzah Zainudin has to address the fact that he does not have enough support within the government to retable the motion to extend a provision of the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (Sosma), say opposition MPs.
They were commenting on Hamzah’s statement that he was looking into how the motion could be retabled after it was shot down in the Dewan Rakyat on Wednesday.
Hamzah said he would be discussing this at the Cabinet meeting today.
Klang MP Charles Santiago said there was no support for the retabling of the motion, even within Umno, “which is why they did not come out to vote”.
“I think the minister has to recognise that he doesn’t have support within the government itself and he should just drop it,” he told FMT.
“Normally, once you lose the debate, you don’t bring it back again. I think there should be some respect for the way Parliament makes a decision.”
Santiago said people knew the Act was being abused even if the government insisted it was meant to prevent terrorism.
“How many terrorists have they caught so far? All we’ve heard about is the abuse,” he said.
On Wednesday, Hamzah tabled the motion to extend the enforcement of sub-section 4(5) of Sosma on the 28-day maximum detention period for another five years. It was defeated with 85 MPs voting in favour and 86 against. The remaining 49 MPs were absent.
Subang MP Wong Chen said it was going to be difficult for Hamzah to get the approval of the Cabinet to retable the motion.
“This is going to be very hard to achieve after the defeat.
“That being the case, I think this is just empty talk to distract from the fact that he should instead be tendering his resignation for the defeat,” he told FMT.
Batu Kawan MP Kasthuri Patto hoped the government would introduce a motion to abolish Sosma instead of retabling the provision.
“Of course, if retabling means removing some provisions of the Bill first and then taking steps to abolish it, it would be welcomed,” she said.
“However, my opinion is that Sosma should be abolished because it is redundant, it usurps the powers of courts, and it can be arbitrarily used on anyone and everyone at any time for any reason that is justifiable by the enforcement officers.”
She said there were sufficient provisions in the Penal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) to address legitimate concerns such as gangsterism, organised crime and triad activities. There was also the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2015 to check terror activities.
Human rights NGO Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram) executive director Sevan Doraisamy said Hamzah should realise that it was clear that Sosma was problematic, especially the 28-day detention provision.
“The home minister should look into a more holistic way of addressing this. He should engage with stakeholders, especially civil society organisations to see why it’s problematic, why 28 days of detention is excessive.
“There are so many instances where we have recorded abuses in these 28 days,” he said.
He said Hamzah should concentrate on many “other pressing issues” at hand.
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