Two committees studying Sosma, Pota and Poca, says home minister

The government has set up a special committee and a technical committee to study in detail the legal provisions in the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (Sosma), Prevention of Terrorism Act 2015 (Pota) and Prevention of Crime Act 1959 (Poca), the Dewan Rakyat was told today.

Home Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said the matters being deliberated by the two committees included the detention periods, which were deemed to be too long, the police’s powers of arrest that were seen to be very vast and could be abused, and judicial intervention where the courts’ powers on these laws had been diluted.

He said the two committees were very important to evaluate all proposals submitted to them in their series of meetings with the stakeholders.

"Now the study is at the final stage where we are preparing the draft papers to be submitted to the Attorney-General’s Chambers. After that, the cabinet will deliberate on it (study) before it is brought to Parliament.

"If can, it will be brought up at this sitting (of Parliament) or at the latest at its next sitting in March,” he said during the Question-and-Answer session in the Dewan Rakyat today.

He was replying to a question from Maria Chin Abdullah (Harapan-Petaling Jaya) who wanted to know why the government was clinging on to these preventive detention laws when the Criminal Procedure Code sufficed.

To a supplementary question from Ahmad Maslan (BN-Pontian) whether the government would repeal Sosma or replace it with other legislation, Muhyiddin said all bills brought to Parliament and passed based on the constitution, were very important.

He said that without the Sosma, Pota and Poca, he could not assure that Malaysia could be the safe nation it is today.

However, Muhyiddin said the study was needed to ensure that there were no elements that could be deemed as oppressive or violating human rights.

He said that so far, almost 2,000 people had been detained under Sosma, nine under Pota, and 475 under Poca.

- Bernama