After previous rejection, MP asks if A-G will fight preventive detention laws: KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 26 – A DAP lawmaker today queried Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Ghani Patail if he will stand up against his Chambers’ apparent disregard of his views in preparing draft laws on preventive detention despite the latter’s public rejection towards such powers. Pointing out that Ghani previously and unambiguously had said he was against the reintroduction of detention without trial that was removed with the repeal of the Internal Security Act (ISA) and Emergency Ordinance (EO), Puchong MP Gobind Singh Deo said it was now perplexing to find a Bill seeking such powers in Parliament. “So, what is the AG’s position now? Is he going to make a U-turn on his earlier views and criticism and now support preventive detention, which he himself has said was a failure or will he do the honourable thing and stick to his guns and support opposition to it?” Gobind asked in a statement today. In July, Gani reportedly said during a seminar in Bangi that he was a “strong advocate of the present laws without preventive detention.” “I have full confidence that enforcement officers can do their jobs without having to rely on such draconian laws,” Ghani said then, adding that he “would never agree to preventive detention”. Ghani was then resisting a concerted campaign seeking the reintroduction of preventive detention powers to deal with a crime wave that police and the Home Ministry blamed on the release of detainees previously held under the EO. “So how can the A-G’s office now draft a bill which seeks to do exactly what it is the A-G said was an affront to the Federal Constitution, which had miserably failed to help reduce escalating crime rates in the country and had so severely condemned himself?” Gobind asked today. The lawmaker noted the “embarrassing” contradiction augured poorly for both the A-G and his chambers, suggesting that the two were not in tune with one another. Yesterday, Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi tabled draft laws that will, among others, allow authorities to detain individuals without trial for up to two years at a time. The amendments to the Prevention of Crime Act 1959 also disallow substantive judicial review and deny legal representation to any detainee except when his or her testimony is required during the inquiry process. This effectively means that the merits of a detention order cannot be challenged in court, much like in the ISA. But Zahid later insisted the move was not a return to the “draconian” days of the EO and ISA, and instead called it a transformation in the vein of the government’s various other national transformation programmes. In 2011, the government surrendered its powers to detain suspects without charge for up to two years at a time when it abolished the Internal Security Act (ISA) 1960 and the Emergency Ordinance (EO) laws. Ahmad Zahid was a vocal proponent for the return of preventive detention powers after saying that its loss had led to a recent crime wave and shooting spree in the country. dlvr.it/42G3QV
Posted on: Thu, 26 Sep 2013 04:06:52 +0000
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