KLANG: The vote in Parliament against extending the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (Sosma) was a positive turn of events, says former Court of Appeal judge Datuk Mah Weng Kwai.

Mah, who is now a Commissioner with the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam), also said they had always been against the use of Sosma.

“It was the right move in Parliament. It has always been Suhakam’s position that if there was prima facie evidence against someone, that person should be charged instead of being detained without trial,” he said.

Criminologist Datuk Dr P. Sundramoorthy said there was already sufficient laws under the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) and Penal Code for police to handle criminality.

“At present, many police officers are highly educated and professionally trained and with the advancement in scientific investigations as well as the existing laws under the CPC and Penal Code, they don’t need procedures like Sosma,” he said.

He added that with advancements in investigative methods and policing, repressive laws such as Sosma had become obsolete. It also harmed the reputation of the police force as it violated human rights and democracy.

“Many advanced democracies do not have such laws and our police force is viewed negatively because of it,” said Sundramoorthy.

He said the police could not be dependent on procedures such as Sosma as most suspects detained under it had to be released without being charged.

Malaysian Centre for Constitutionalism and Human Rights director Fahri Azzat said Sosma was open to abuse.

“It encourages the police to be ‘lazy’ and whimsical in their ‘investigations’,” he said.

He said even without Sosma, the police used the courts to get longer remands, which are known as chain remands.

(With chain remands, the police obtain multiple remand orders from different courts to detain an accused for a longer period.)

“Suspects are highly inconvenienced by the 28-day detention and worse if it is for mala fide purposes,” said Fahri. Furthermore, he said there was also no compensation for any excessive detention.

However, former Suhakam commissioner Datuk N. Siva Subramaniam believes otherwise.

“Maintaining law and order is the priority here. If they feel they need Sosma, they should have it,” he said.

This article first appeared on TheStar.