Best to do away with Sosma as it is 'mostly draconian' - NGOs, MPs

Several NGOs and lawmakers are reiterating their calls to completely abolish the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (Sosma) as most of the act is considered "draconian".

This would be better than the government's suggestion to review certain provisions to make it less draconian, they said.

"This government promised that it will accord the rule of law when drafting legislation, but Sosma is against the rule of law because it does not give basic protection to those arrested and instead takes away their rights.

"We are not saying that we don't want security laws. We must have security laws, but they must be fair security laws.

"All that we are asking for is security legislation which allows the judiciary to have control over the process and where everyone has to report to the judiciary," said National Human Rights Society president Ambiga Sreenevasan in a press conference in Parliament today.

Suaram executive director Sevan Doraisamy also said that they are disappointed with Home Minister Muhyiddin Yassin's statement saying that Sosma was still needed to combat terrorist activities.

"There are many other countries facing bigger terrorism threats than Malaysia, and they handle these without using draconian acts which block judicial oversight during remands and important due process for the accused.

"We are also disappointed a year after we handed over our memorandum to abolish Sosma, the act was used to arrest at least 12 individuals allegedly linked to the now-defunct Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)," he said.

Petaling Jaya MP Maria Chin Abdullah, who was detained under Sosma for 10 days in 2016, reminded that many Pakatan Harapan ministers and MPs were once detained without trial.

"Let's not forget that. We have a moral obligation to not allow detention without trial to continue," she said.

Last month, 12 individuals were arrested under Sosma over charges of purported links to LTTE, including several state assemblypersons from DAP and PKR. - Mkini