Counter-terrorism in Malaysia - The Need For Anti-Terrorism Legislation

The Need For Anti-Terrorism Legislation

Due to the nature of modern terrorism threats, it is no longer feasible to rely on the existing criminal law provisions. With information travel across the globe in a matter of minutes, evidences are getting more and more obscure and personal liberty is being misused, it is imperative for the Malaysian Government to enact a separate law to deal specifically with terrorism threats.

Generally, the need for anti-terrorism laws can be summarised as below:

• Provide legal framework for dealing with elements of violence, treachery and other actions, deemed detrimental to national security and public order.
• Empowering the Malaysian Government to undertake pre-emptive actions against perceived terrorism threats.
• Preservation of Malaysia's character as a multi-cultural and multi-religious nation, where preservation of peace is of paramount importance to ensure continued economic growth.
• Existing criminal laws may impede investigation due to bureaucratic processes and procedures.
• Provision for expanded scopes of investigation to cover intrusive surveillance, enhanced monitoring and prolonged detention that might contravene with the provision of Article 5 of the Federal Constitution.
• Underline the role of security forces, public prosecutors, judiciary and law practitioners in the event of invocation of such anti-terrorism laws.

Historically, Internal Security Act 1960 was enacted in 1960 by the administration of Tunku Abdul Rahman, then Federation of Malaya's Prime Minister to deal specifically with the threats of armed resistance from the communists. The main features of the Internal Security Act 1960 were:

• Detention without arrest warrant or trial.
• Detention period of up to 60 days, after which, the Home Minister may renew the period every 2 years.

The controversy surrounding the Internal Security Act 1960 led to the abolishment of the Act in 2012 by the administration of Dato' Seri Najib Tun Haji Razak and it is replaced by the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012, with shorter detention period and more explicit terms related to the exclusion political activities from being subjected under the new Act. However, access to legal counsel (Section 5(1)(b)) can be delayed for up to 48-hours, subject to authorisation by a person not below the rank of Superintendent of Police (Section 5(2)).