There is little trust in the government or police not to abuse their power to detain without trial under the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2015 (Pota), a political analyst says.

 

Ideas chief executive Wan Saiful Wan Jan ( right ) blamed this on Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's failure to usher in any meaningful transformation.

 

"Malaysia does not have sufficiently strong institutional guarantees to prevent abuse of powers by the executives or the police. How can anyone trust the promises made by this so-called transformational government?

 

"This is understandable, given the failure of the prime minister to conduct a meaningful political transformation in the country, and the conduct of the police force lately," Wan Saiful said in a statement today.

 

He was also sceptical of the government's assurance that it would not use the Pota to silence critics.

 

"When the Internal Security Act was introduced, the government at that time too promised that it would not be used for political purposes. But history tells us that many parties have accused the government of abusing the powers conferred by the ISA," Wan Saiful said.

 

This was echoed by PAS vice-president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man, who urged the people to reject the Pota and proposed amendments to the Sedition Act.

 

"By amending the Sedition Act, does the government want to bury freedom of speech and free media indirectly? There is no guarantee that this will not happen and that the Pota will be abused for political purposes," Tuan Ibrahim said in statement.

 

He said PAS, together with Pakatan, will abolish both Acts if they are given the mandate to rule in the 14th general election.

 

Pota was passed in the Dewan Rakyat yesterday, after 12 hours of debate.

 

The Act allows the government to detain suspected terrorists without trial for two years, with a board empowered to renew detention indefinitely.

 

Meanwhile proposed amendments to the Sedition Act offer a mixed bag of greater freedoms, and greater punishments for offenders.

 

Among others, it makes jail time mandatory, with a minimum of three years. Those charged with sedition also face the possibility of not being allowed to post bail.

 

Human rights ‘black hole’

 

These developments have alarmed NGO Amnesty International, which said Malaysia is close to becoming a human rights "black hole"

 

"With the stroke of a pen, Malaysia has managed to get one step closer to becoming a ‘human rights black hole’, where fundamental rights to a fair trial or freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, even if enshrined in the Malaysian constitution, are increasingly being undermined in the name of national security," Amnesty's Malaysian researcher Hazel Galang-Folli said in a statement yesterday.

 

"Abandoning people to rot in a cell for years on end without a judicial process and proof that they have committed a crime is just like aimlessly stabbing in the dark.

 

"Authorities in Malaysia must immediately repeal the Prevention of Terrorism Act and the Sedition Act and release all those who have been detained under these for only expressing their opinions peacefully," Galang-Folli added.