About a week or so ago, it was reported that police will be issuing compounds for violators of the movement control order (MCO) instead of arresting them and charging them in court.
According to a police spokesperson, each compound notice will come with RM1,000.00 fine, and violators will be given a strict timeline to pay the fine. Failure to do so could mean that the violator will be charged in court.
Under the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act a person who commits an offence shall be liable upon conviction to a fine or imprisonment not exceeding two years or to a fine or both, for a first offence. The act also allows the authorities to issue such compound notices to a maximum of RM1,000.00.
However, under the three regulations thus far issued under Section 11 of the act, the penalty for breach of the regulations is a fine not exceeding RM1,000.00, imprisonment for six months or both.
The decision last week to issue compound notices was welcomed by many. Various quarters before that have expressed concerns about issues of lack of social distancing in prisons and remand centres which may result in new Covid-19 transmissions.
The Prisons Department director-general before this had issued a letter to the judiciary to stop jailing violators of the MCO to avoid overcrowding in prisons, which could lead to the spread of the coronavirus.
In response, Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat has urged lower court judges to use their discretion wisely when sentencing MCO violators and to consider the issue of overcrowding in prisons and potential transmissions.
It is, therefore, disappointing that this week the government has announced that they will no longer be issuing compound notices and will be arresting and remanding violators. It was also reported that 13 more MCO detention centres have been gazetted as prisons to house offenders once courts have meted out sentences.
While this may address the problem of overcrowding in prisons, it does not take away from the fact that many will be remanded first before they are charged. There may not be strict compliance on social distancing in the remand centres.
Even with the newly gazetted prisons, social distancing will only work if there are officers who monitor and enforce it. There is no guarantee that this will be done in these new detention centres. Charging violators in court also take up judicial time.
Certainly, there are those who refuse to comply with the MCO. Sometimes, compound notices may not be effective. Sometimes, prison sentences may be more appropriate. There are many reasons why people contravene the MCO. Some go out to find food, and some go out because they want to go jogging.
Yet, the authorities must not completely abandon compounding the offences. For more minor violations of the MCO, the authorities should still consider issuing compound notices.
Even for those charged in court, community service may be an option for 'youthful offenders' (those 18 and above but below 21). For others, fines must still be the first option and imprisonment must be the last resort.
Moving forward, the government must consider amending the Criminal Procedure Code to expand the scope of community service beyond 'youthful offenders'. This would require an amendment of the Criminal Procedure Code. Such an amendment would be timely, as even after the MCO is lifted the threat of Covid-19 will still loom large.
We should be moving away from sentences of imprisonment for more minor offences as part of the often touted 'new normal' in the aftermath of this crisis.
SYAHREDZAN JOHAN is a civil liberties lawyer and political secretary to Iskandar Puteri MP Lim Kit Siang. - Mkini
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