Bar Council: Way to go, Syed Hamid

The Bar Council has hailed Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar’s call to critics of the controversial DNA Identification bill to raise their concerns before it is tabled in three months' time.

“I will propose to other members of the Bar Council that we set up a joint committee with the attorney-general’s office to study the bill to propose the necessary amendments,” Bar Council Human Rights Committee president Edmund Bon told Malaysiakini .

The proposed joint committee is expected to be formed by members from the Bar Council’s Law Reform Committee, Human Rights Committee and the Criminal Law Committee.

English-language daily Star had quoted Syed Hamid as saying that groups concerned about the bill should voice their grouses now before it is tabled at the committee stage in December.

Bon said the DNA bill in its current form lacks privacy protection clauses and that this could lead to infringement of human rights.

“We will not support the bill if there is no DNA data protection bill (alongside the proposed law). Syed Hamid in the last parliament sitting had promised to look into this,” said Bon.

Unfair provisions

Apart from the lack of data protection, the Bar Council a few weeks ago also raised other concerns such as a conclusive evidence clause that would make it impossible for the accused to challenge DNA samples produced in court by the police.

The bill was fiercely criticised by opposition MPs when it was tabled hastily, at the expense of another controversial bill - the Universities and University Colleges Act amendment bill.

The opposition MP s claimed the DNA bill was politically motivated and rushed through to entrap PKR leader Anwar Ibrahim, who has been charged for sodomising an ex-aide.

Anwar, who pleaded not guilty, had refused to provide doctors with his DNA sample when he was held by the police for questioning.

The opposition MPs have demanded that the bill be referred to a select committee for review . This however has been rejected by the government.