Malaysia uses specious terrorism threat to regress on human rights

By admin-s Last updated Apr 8, 2015

The new terror law is another blot on the record of Malaysia’s weak and uninspiring prime minister, Najib Razak, who came to power in 2009 promising to create “the greatest democracy”.

Simon Tisdall, The Guardian

The passage of Malaysia’s new Prevention of Terrorism Act, which has been approved by the lower house of parliament, deals another heavy blow to the cause of human rights in south-east Asia. Three years after the hated colonial-era Internal Security Act was repealed, the government will once again have the power to lock people up arbitrarily and indefinitely, without trial and without legal redress.

The ostensible justification for this stark anti-democratic regression is the perceived threat posed by Malaysian Muslims who support Islamic State. Police say 92 Malaysians have been detained over the past year for alleged links to Isis in Syria, while others are sympathetic to the group. However, the numbers are small compared with the many hundreds of European Muslims who have joined Isis.

Opponents claim the government has failed to demonstrate a threat from Isis. “My biggest fear is that the law may be abused,” N Surendran, an opposition MP, told Agence France-Presse. “I don’t think there is any basis for the government’s claim that this law is needed to contain [Isis].”

Post-independence Malaysia does not have a serious or ongoing terrorism problem, at least compared to many other majority Muslim countries. A handful of Malaysians have been linked in the past to the Philippines-based jihadi group Abu Sayyaf, an Isis affiliate since 2014, or implicated in bombings in Indonesia.

But Zahid Hamidi, the home affairs minister, insisted the new law was necessary to curb rising Islamist militancy. He said: “This is a real threat, and prevention measures are needed.” By coincidence or not, police detained 17 people alleged to be plotting terror attacks in Kuala Lumpur on the eve of the parliamentary vote. The arrests will heighten fears that the new powers will be abused.