What’s going on AG?

The Attorney-General came under the spotlight today for his office drafting the controversial Prevention of Crime Act after AG Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail had himself openly criticised and opposed such preventive laws.

DAP National Legal Bureau chairman Gobind Singh Deo pointed out that Gani had openly criticised such laws an "abuse to human rights".

"In August, Gani was reported to have said at a forum in Petaling Jaya that 'preventive laws were an abuse to human rights and personal liberty as enshrined in our Federal Constitution and that this guarantee must be safeguarded at all costs'.

"He also made hard-hitting remarks about preventive detention laws claiming it had actually failed to check the rise in violent crimes in the country and that the police were 'addicted to it'," said Gobind in a statement today.

The Puchong MP then went on to question how Gani's office had drafted the Bill which sought to do exactly what he had said was an affront to the Federal Constitution. 

"This certainly does not reflect well on the AG and raises questions as to whether his views are respected in his own chambers," said Gobind.

"I call upon the AG to come out and state his stand. Is he making a U-turn on his earlier views and criticisms by now supporting preventive detention.

"Will he now do the honourable thing and stick to his guns and oppose it?

"It is alarming, if not embarrassing, to see a situation here where the views of the AG on something so significant have been disregarded," he added.

The amendments to the PCA were tabled in Parliament yesterday, creating an uproar among opposition lawmakers as the amendments would allow detention without trial for up to two years, similar to the old Internal Security Act.

Additionally, the proposed amendments exclude the provision of judicial review, except if it is on procedural measures.

The PCA in its current form allows the detention of an individual for up to 72 days unlike the repealed draconian Emergency Ordinance that allowed detention without trial indefinitely.