In a written reply, the ministry said Sosma was an act “to provide for special measures relating to security offences for the purpose of maintaining public order and security and for connected matters”.

The ministry added that it clearly showed Sosma was a procedural act and that the types of security offences had been stated in the act.

The ministry was replying to Ahmad Baihaki Atiqullah (PAS-Kubang Kerian) who asked for the number of people detained and charged under the law, and the types of offences committed by the detainees.

Sosma replaces the much-criticised Internal Security Act 1960 (ISA).

Former ISA detainees Yazid Sufaat, Halimah Hussein and Mohd Hilmi Hasim were among the first people detained under Sosma in 2013. They were arrested for alleged incitement of terrorist acts.

Following the 2013 Lahad Datu stand-off, 104 Filipinos with suspected links to Jamalul Kiram III, one of the claimants to the throne of the Sulu sultanate, were detained under Sosma.

These included several family members of Kiram, who had entered Sabah under false identities.

Sosma was amended in the Dewan Rakyat on Oct 22, 2013 to place organised crime as an offence punishable under the act.

However, critics have said that the arrest and detention of Bersih 2.0 chairperson Maria Chin Abdullah shows that the government is capable of using Sosma against political opponents and its critics just as it did with the ISA previously.