COMMENT | In a staggering parliamentary admission, Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail defended the nine-day detention of a 16-year-old girl under the draconian law known as the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (Sosma).

The kicker? She wasn’t even a suspect. Under questioning from Bukit Gelugor MP Ramkarpal Singh, the minister revealed the child was held for nine days as a “mere witness” to an alleged migrant smuggling case involving her father.

At the outset, let me make myself perfectly clear that I never disputed that migrant smuggling is a serious crime and potentially a threat to national security, but that in itself does not give the police free rein to blatantly ignore the law, particularly when it involves minors.

To its credit...