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MP SPEAKS As reported in the media today, Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak defended his National Security Council Act 2016 (NSC Act), which was passed in Parliament recently, purportedly to combat terrorism.

The BN-led government decided to go ahead with gazetting the NSC Act 2016 into law, despite the lack of royal assent from the Yang di-Pertuan Agong.

Urgings from the Conference of Rulers for the law to be referred back to the legislature for amendments were also not taken into consideration. This law will now come into force on Aug 1.

The general public and opposition parliamentarians have no issues on the need to counter the threat of terrorism.

What we generally fear is that the NSC Act will be misused for other purposes, especially to silence and intimidate activists, opposition politicians and generally, dissenting members of the public. Such a similar law had been misused before.

The present laws in existence, together with the new Security Offences (Special Measures) Act (Sosma), Prevention of Terrorism Act (Pota) and the colonial Sedition Act, are more than adequate to cope with the threats we have faced in the past and also in the present.

However, we have been very concerned by the existing abuse of the present set of laws being used against government opposition members.

As to the threats of the religious fanatics, we are disappointed that the government has failed to act adequately on our various previous complaints on seditious and threatening statements issued by various parties.

Examples of this are the complaints on statements on "halal darah" and "kafir harbi" by various quarters, which could lead to serious consequences, that have not been acted upon. Why are the government and the authorities being selective on these issues?

If these statements were to come from opposition quarters, we would think that actions would have been swift.

Our main fear is that the NSC Act will be misused against the opposition and dissenting voices.

We are almost certain that, somehow and sometime in the near future, it would lead to this type of abuse in order keep the present government in power. We are almost certain this law will eventually be used to silence government critics by detaining them.

What is most important and interesting is that the Conference of Rulers in February 2016 had asked Najib's government to refine and review the NSC Act that was submitted to the Rulers for their consent. The Majlis Raja-Raja Melayu is not happy and is worried about the NSC in its present form.

However, Najib completely ignored the request and went ahead, gazetting it as law without any amendment.

Malaysia is already besieged with various controversies and the 1MDB scandal has blown out in a big way, internationally. We fear for our country and our future.

Is the NSC really to combat terrorism or is it to strike terror into the hearts and minds of the normal citizens?

The Conference of Malay Rulers has shown its worry and concern. So should all of us. May God save our nation and us, the ordinary citizens.


RAJA KAMARUL BAHRIN SHAH RAJA AHMAD is the MP for Kuala Terengganu.

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