The DAP MP says there have been no developments since home minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said in July that the bill would be tabled in Parliament.
The Bukit Gelugor MP and DAP national legal bureau chairman said home minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail had previously indicated that a bill to amend Sosma was expected to be tabled in the Dewan Rakyat.
“But there have been no developments since then. I call on the government to announce when the bill will be tabled, as the matter requires urgent attention,” he said in a statement.
On July 9, Saifuddin said the bill was being refined to strike a balance between national security, the principles of justice and the protection of fundamental rights before being presented to the Cabinet and its subsequent tabling in the Dewan Rakyat.
Ramkarpal also responded to former deputy inspector-general of police Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay’s defence of Sosma, in which Ayob said specialised laws were necessary to effectively deal with terrorism and organised crime.
Ayob said standard remand procedures under general criminal law were inadequate in cases involving large-scale terror operations and multiple suspects.
However, Ramkarpal, a former deputy law and institutional reform minister, reiterated that Sosma’s lack of judicial oversight over the detention of suspects for up to 28 days and its denial of bail in most cases were “draconian”.
Sosma currently imposes a blanket no-bail rule for most offences, except in cases involving women, minors, or individuals who are sick.
Ramkarpal also claimed Sosma appeared to have been used against ordinary citizens and people involved in gang-related activities, pointing to the detention of a 16-year-old girl in Kedah as an example of what he described as an abuse of the law. - FMT
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