A PKR grassroots leader and an activist today started a campaign seeking to get 100,000 signatures urging Putrajaya to ban the controversial security law, the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (Sosma).
The petition comes days after police used the law to net 12 suspects for allegedly being involved in activities related to Sri Lankan Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) group.
K Ramachandran, who is Tapah PKR division deputy chief, said he and Indian community rights activist Shankar Ganesh Siridharan planned to collect the signatures to accompany a memorandum urging for Sosma's repeal which they would then submit to the Council of Malay Rulers.
He said they were doing this as they believed Sosma was a law that oppressed human rights.
"Sosma is an act that oppresses human rights. In my opinion, it is just a tool that is being used for a political agenda.
"So today we launched this petition to get 100,000 signatures with the aim of having this act abolished," Ramachandran told a press conference in Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur today.
He added they also planned to get all MPs and members of the Dewan Negara (Senate) to sign the memorandum.
According to Shankar, they wanted to get MPs including the prime minister on board as they were the lawmakers who had the power to repeal the law.
"They are the ones who hold the power to either keep Sosma or abolish it. So we will get signatures from them including the PM," he said.
The duo said they aimed to reach their objective in the first week of January 2020 following which they will submit the memorandum to the Council of Malay Rulers.
They told reporters they would also rope in the assistance of the Bar Council, Lawyers for Liberty, Suaram, Sisters in Islam, PSM and various volunteers to help gather the required signatures. - Mkini
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