Friday 29 Mar 2024
By
main news image

KUALA LUMPUR: Opposition lawmakers urged Putrajaya yesterday to disclose the draft of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (Pota) to facilitate debates in parliament instead of giving it to them at the last minute, which has been the practice with new bills.

PKR Kelana Jaya member of parliament (MP) Wong Chen said the draft bill is coming up for debate in two weeks’ time, yet opposition MPs are in the dark about its contents.

“It is a major act. We need to look at it and get the opinions of academics and defence analysts, and we need to understand who is being targeted in the Act,” he told reporters at the parliament lobby.

PAS Kuala Terengganu MP Datuk Raja Kamarul Bahrin Shah Raja Ahmad agreed, saying that all opposition MPs were told — when they asked about the bill — that even the United States and Australia have such an Act.

“But in the US and Australia, it is only used on foreigners. Is that the case here as well?

“That was how it started with the ISA. Tun Razak himself assured the people that it would only be used against the communists, but then we have all seen how it was used against others, especially opposition politicians,” he said, referring to the promise made by Malaysia’s second prime minister Tun Abdul Razak Hussein Al-Haj not to abuse the Internal Security Act 1960, a preventive detention law that Malaysia repealed in 2012.

Last week, Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi urged opposition lawmakers to accept the new antiterrorism law, saying that it is not to curb the freedom of speech and human rights, but is targeted at militant activities.

He also said opposition pact Pakatan Rakyat should realise the importance of having such a law to curb terrorism in the country, adding that the new law is also apolitical.

But Wong said yesterday that it is hard to understand why the draft Act is still kept under wraps when in all probability, the Attorney-General’s Chambers would have prepared the draft months ago. — The Malaysian Insider

 

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on March 19, 2015.

      Print
      Text Size
      Share