VIDEO | 1.17 mins

PKR's Subang MP R Sivarasa has questioned whether MCA and Gerakan MPs will vote against the Prevention of Crime Act 1956 (PCA) amendments when the Bill tabled for its second reading in Parliament tomorrow.

"Both MCA and Gerakan have raised objections to the amendments. Will they vote against it when it is tabled tomorrow?" Sivarasa asked during a press conference at the Parliament lobby today.

The amendments, if passed, will see a return of preventive detention, more than a year after the abolition of the Internal Security Act (ISA) and Emergency Ordinance (EO).

Sivarasa also questioned whether attorney-general Abdul Gani Patail and de facto law minister Nancy Shukri had been misleading the public by making statements that assured the public that preventive detention would not return with the PCA amendments shortly before the amendments were tabled.

“One wonders why the AG as recently as a couple of weeks ago, on Sept 24, in a forum organised by the Home Ministry, said that there was no need today for such laws and that the police had been able to deal with violent criminals,” Sivarasa said.

“Nancy Shukri was similarly misleading the Bar Council when she said at a meeting with them on Sept 18 when she gave the impression that only minor amendments would be made,” he added.

“However, the far-reaching amendments, while technically not being new legislation, are clearly contradictory to the impression given,” Sivarasa further said.

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