This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on January 7, 2016.

KUALA LUMPUR: The controversial National Security Council (NSC) bill is a serious threat to Malaysia’s constitutional government, said lawyers’ groups in an open letter, as it upsets the separation of powers between executive, legislature and judiciary.

The open letter to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak comes as the government attempts to push through the bill despite the concerns of civil society groups and opposition parties towards the new law.

The groups, who represent lawyers from the peninsula, and Sabah and Sarawak, also refuted Putrajaya’s claims that the bill is necessary to deal with terrorism and incidents such as the Lahad Datu incursion by Sulu militants in 2013.

“It is apparent that the bill vests and concentrates enormous executive and emergency powers in the NSC and the prime minister,” said the statement signed by the Malaysian Bar, Sarawak Advocates’ Association and the Sabah Law Association.

“This upsets the delicate separation of powers in the constitution between the executive, legislature and judiciary on the one hand, and the constitutional monarchy on the other hand.” — The Malaysian Insider