Malaysia in 'step back' on rights

MALAYSIA'S lower house yesterday passed government anti-crime legislation that will reintroduce detention without trial.

MALAYSIA'S lower house yesterday passed government anti-crime legislation that will reintroduce detention without trial, in what is being described as an "obnoxious" move and "a huge step backwards on rights".

A panel of three, including a former judge, will be able to order that people be held for two years at a time, renewable.

Critics have claimed this will mean a return to the notorious Internal Security Act, which the British colonial authorities originally imposed on Malaysia, under which about 11,000 people were detained, many for political activities or statements.

The ISA was abolished two years ago by Prime Minister Najib Razak, in a move widely applauded as heralding more liberal governance in Malaysia. His UMNO-dominated government retained power at the national election in May, but with its slimmest majority so far.

Now the lower house has passed revisions to the Prevention of Crime Act of 1959 again allowing people to be held without trial.

Mr Najib said the new law was needed to combat organised crime, and that "no one will be victimised" under it, with "the power of detention shifted from the executive to the judiciary, unless it concerns terrorism".

Crime, he said - including recent high-profile robberies and shootings - "has frightened the public, and if the government doesn't act, more people will become victims".

Under the legislation, the authorities may detain people if they consider such an action in the interests of "public order", "public security", or "prevention of crime".

The responsible panel, the Prevention of Crime Board, can detain a suspect believed to have committed two or more serious offences, "whether or not he is convicted thereof".

Lim Kit Siang, an MP for the Democratic Action Party, in opposition, said the new law was "an obnoxious piece of legislation". Party chairman Karpal Singh said its contents were "no better" than the former ISA.

Phil Robertson, the deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said: "Malaysia is taking a huge step backwards on rights." Mr Najib was "backing methods that do little to curtail crime but threaten everyone's liberty".

A provision in the new legislation permits any information about the Prevention of Crime Board to be kept secret, with any officer of the board barred from disclosing information "he considers to be against the public interest to disclose".

Suspects have no right to legal representation during the board's determinations, against which only limited judicial review is permitted.