Friday 29 Mar 2024
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(April 10): The Prevention of Terrorism Act (Pota), passed by the Dewan Rakyat on April 7, and the amendments to the Sedition Act clearly show that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has backed off from the liberal, reformist policies he was touting in his first term in office, says The Economist.  

The colonial-era Internal Security Act (ISA) has been repealed, as promised by Najib, but Pota bears many features of the ISA, such as imprisonment without trial for two years with the option of multiple extensions.

The government made its case for Pota by citing an increasing threat from militants influenced and prompted by the extremist beliefs of the Islamic State (Isis). About a dozen Malaysian “jihadists” are said to have died in the Middle East so far.

On April 5, just hours before the Dewan Rakyat began debating the bill, police announced the detention of 17 people said to be planning terror attacks in Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya. In the past 2 years, about 90 people have been rounded up on suspicion of having links to militant groups.

The Economist noted that opponents of Pota were suspicious of the timing of the latest arrests as there was the question of whether such draconian legislation was needed when Malaysia was not experiencing a Muslim insurgency like southern Thailand and the Philippines.

Elsewhere, the International Commission of Jurists pointed to the solitary member of the detention panel with legal experience as a weakness in the scheme of things. Another such weakness is the fact that the police do not need the panel's approval to hold someone for 60 days.

Underlying these doubts about the efficacy and need for Pota, and the amendments to the Sediion Act, is the fear that these are laws that will be used against political opponents of the government.

The Sedition Act has been invoked with increasing frequency in recent months against a host of activists, politicians, journalists and even a cartoonist.

PKR vice-president Nurul Izzah Anwar is being investigated for a "seditious" speech in the Dewan Rakyat regarding the imprisonment of her father, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, while cartoonist Zunar is facing nine counts of sedition and a possible jail term of more than four decades.

Supporters of the prime minister may say that he has to deal with pressure from hardliners in Umno, but “that is not much comfort to anyone”, added The Economist. – The Malaysian Insider

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