Deputy Home Minister Nur Jazlan Mohamed has displayed poor understanding of security laws by comparing Malaysian laws, which allow preventive detention, with the US Patriot Act and the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, PKR lawmaker N Surendran said.
The Padang Serai MP said attempts to compare preventive laws at home with laws of the United States were "desperate, misguided and misleading".
This is because the US Patriot Act does not allow preventive detention in the US and only non-US citizens can be held without trial in Guantanamo.
Guantanamo Bay is also not on US soil because the US constitution does not allow detention without trial, said Surendran who is also a practising lawyer.
"BN politicians like Nur Jazlan should thus take a long hard look at the system they uphold in this country, before pointing fingers at the US.
"No American citizen needs to ever fear being detained without trial. When will Malaysians ever be able to say that? Certainly not, it seems, as long as there is a BN government in this country," he said in a statement.
Nur Jazlan had argued that the Prevention of Terrorism Act (Pota), National Security Council (NSC) Act and the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act (Sosma) are needed to combat terrorism.
He also said that the US has more draconian laws, including the Patriot Act, and detained suspected terrorists without trial at Guantanamo Bay.
He said those who were against such preventive measures did not understand the nature of terrorism.
However, Surendran said preventive detention weakens the police force because the police would resort to detaining suspects instead of conducting a thorough investigation, surveillance and intelligence.
"Since guilt need not be proved, innocent people may be put in custody, whereas the actual terrorists may roam free and threaten the population.
"There can be no denying that preventive detention laws, such as Sosma, Pota and the NSC Act, are a negation of the people's liberties and counter-productive in the fight against terrorism," Surendran added. - Mkini
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