MP SPEAKS The Institute of Economics and Peace has cited religious extremism as the primary cause of terror attacks worldwide. Closer to home, the Malaysian police have reported that since April to December of last year, ‘at least 10 civil servants have been detected to be directly or indirectly involved with the activities of the terror group, especially in terms of funding and recruitment among Malaysians’.

It would seem that the Umno-BN government has problems tracking down and rehabilitating terrorist sympathisers in its own civil service rather than the targeted opposition supporters across the political divide.

This targeting takes place despite the fact that there is not one iota of evidence that the recent arrests and investigations made under either the colonial era Sedition Act (1948) or Peaceful Assembly Act against Pakatan Rakyat supporters, members and Members of Parliament are linked to terrorism.

What is more shocking is Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s temerity to justify recent arrests, including of MPs, “to prevent acts of terrorism in the country”. He went on to add that the “use of the Act was a preventive measure and if not used, more people could become victims to acts of terror.”

As a recent arrest victim, investigated under Section 4 of the Sedition Act for a speech I made in Parliament, I find such justification as malicious and downright irresponsible for any premier to make.

The origins of the Special Branch lie in counter-terrorism surveillance and intelligence gathering, as well as rehabilitation of terrorists. However, over the years, the shift was towards protecting Umno’s ascendancy in government.

The Special Branch has been tasked to monitor members of the democratic opposition, journalists, activists, students, and academics (political policing) - brazenly confirmed by Minister Zahid Hamidi in his response to Sepang MP in Parliament last week. Zahid is proud that opposition MPs speeches are monitored, with daily updates unfailingly reported to him.

This politicisation of the Special Branch has undermined its capacity to defend Malaysia from terrorism.

The government needs to re-examine its own role in contributing towards a terrorist threat. Last Thursday’s briefing by Bukit Aman’s counter-terrorism director Ayub Khan Mydin saw the Special Branch admit that there are sympathisers of the terrorist group Islamic State (IS) in government agencies.

Such disclosures should drive the government to be more transparent and engaging with Malaysian stakeholders, especially legislators across the spectrum to ensure the solutions unearthed - from preventive to the rehabilitative -are effective.

'Protecting the security of Umno'

Instead, Anti-terrorism laws have in the past been abused to protect the security of Umno rather than the security of Malaysia. The clearest example of abuse has been the detention without trial provision of the Internal Security Act (ISA).

The power of the minister, and by extension the executive arm of government, to arbitrarily detain individuals without trial was a major source of abuse of the ISA. Thousands of opposition politicians, social activists, and other members of civil society were detained without trial under the ISA.

While purportedly an anti-terrorism law, the ISA became a tool to perpetuate and strengthen authoritarian rule and the single-party dominance enjoyed by Umno. Critics of the executive who could not be defeated fairly at the ballot box, or via rational debate in a free media, could be silenced with indefinite detention without trial.

The home minister has claimed that the Prevention of Terrorism Act (Pota) will not repeat the ISA since the authority to detain lies with an advisory board. However, advisory board membership and powers would still fall under the executive, similar to the minister’s discretion under ISA. If such powers of check and balance are to be accorded in any law, then they must lie with the judiciary.

The more fundamental flaw is that by allowing detention without trial, Pota would undermine the due process of law. The right to a fair trial must be defended as a sacred part of our country's legal process.

We must set a higher example when engaging with actual or potential terrorists. We cannot throw out the rule of law when dealing with those who seek to break the law. This would precipitate the breakdown of order and worsen the already weakened legal institutions of Malaysia.

The Najib government has a track record of reintroducing repressive measures under rebranded laws, such as restrictions on the freedom of assembly under the Peaceful Assembly Act 2012 (parts of which were subsequently declared unconstitutional). Najib’s insincere commitment to repeal the Sedition Act (which he has since retracted) has been undermined by its repeated subsequent use against democratic dissent and defenders of civil liberties up to the present day.

Long periods of detention without trial of suspected terrorists points to intelligence failures by the authorities. If an individual needs to be detained in such a manner while investigations proceed (or not), it implies that prior intelligence gathering efforts have been inadequate.

As pointed out above this is a question of training, competency, and prioritisation of resources towards genuine counter-terrorism efforts as opposed to political policing.

The government should be focused on engaging the public for feedback and immediately table Pota and six other proposed legislation against terrorism to a bipartisan parliamentary select committee (PSC) on terrorism to unearth the most effective solution to combating terror in our midst. Otherwise Pota and whatever else attached to it will only be seen as mere mechanisms to continue persecution against the opposition.

The bulldozing of Pota will be cause for rejection from all quarters; the Bar Council, the Global Movement of Moderates Foundation and now, Pakatan Rakyat.

MP: Terrorism Bill (Pota) breaches constitution

NURUL IZZAH ANWAR is Lembah Pantai Member of Parliament, PKR vice-president and the party’s election director.