Suaram executive director Sevan Doraisamy said the group was disappointed that the motion to reactivate the provision on Sosma’s pre-trial detention had been scheduled for a debate and vote today despite the fact that it had already been voted down during the previous parliamentary session.

In March, home minister Hamzah Zainudin tabled the motion to extend the enforcement of sub-section 4(5) of Sosma on the 28-day maximum detention period for another five years. It was defeated, with 85 MPs voting in favour and 86 against. The remaining 49 MPs were absent.

Sevan maintained that Sosma, which allows detention without trial, should be abolished entirely because it severely undermined the principles of the right to a fair trial as enshrined in the Federal Constitution.

He also pointed out that after the motion was defeated, police had complied with the Dewan Rakyat’s decision to not extend the provision.

“Instead, the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) and other relevant acts would be used for any potential arrest, detention and investigation pertaining to these security offences that fall under the purview of Sosma.

“This revealed that Malaysia’s very own CPC is sufficient and equipped for the police to address these security offences,” he said in a statement.

Sevan added that the CPC was a better safeguard against any potential abuse of power while also granting police sufficient power to act on security offences.

He also said the time to debate legislation would be better spent on bills such as the anti-sexual harassment and anti-hopping bill as they have not been voted on in Parliament yet.

“The re-tabling of Sosma will only create the practice where the government would just keep re-tabling its defeated motions until the Parliament wills it,” he said.