Detentions under the Prevention of Crime Act 1959 (PCA) would be removed from parliamentary scrutiny under a proposed amendment set to be debated this week.

 

Under present law, the home minister is required to table an annual report to Parliament regarding such detentions at its first meeting each year.

 

The present law has a sunset clause that requires Parliament to renew the provision to allow for detention every five years.

The PCA amendment bill tabled last week replaces the sunset clause and provision for parliamentary scrutiny with unrelated clauses.

 

“This removes the requirement for the minister of home affairs to submit annual reports to the parliament of all activities under Part IVA (Detention Orders) under Act 297 (PCA) and the requirement for Part IVA to be reviewed every five years by the parliament,” read the explanatory statement of the bill.

On request basis

 

However, parliamentarians may still be able to obtain information regarding the detentions by formally requesting it during the parliament’s question time.

 

In tabling the amendment bill on Monday last week, Deputy Home Minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar ( left ) said that the government intends to have the second reading in the ongoing sitting which ends on Thursday,

 

It was tabled together with the Prevention of Terrorism Bill (Pota), the Special Measures Against Terrorism in Foreign Countries Bill, the Penal Code (Amendment) Bill, the Prison (Amendment) Bill, Criminal Procedure Code (Amendment) Bill, and Security Offences (Special Measures) (Amendment) Bill.

 

Like the PCA amendment bill, all six of these are also slated for debate over the week.

 

Under the PCA, a board formed under the same law - known as the Prevention of Crime Board - may issue two year detention orders against persons deemed to be a member of a list of “registrable categories”. The orders can be renewed indefinitely for two years at a time.

 

The list currently covers secret societies, drug and human traffickers, and gambling syndicates, but can be amended at any time through an order by the home minister.

 

With the expanded scope of the PCA under the proposed amendments, the list is expected to include terrorists as well if the amendments are passed and gazetted.

 

PCA and Pota overlap

 

The amendments would also give the PCA many similarities with the proposed Pota - which is scheduled for debate today - and even have identical wording in several provisions.

 

For example, the provisions spelling out the makeup of the Prevention of Crime Board under the PCA and the Prevention of Terrorism Board under the Pota are identical except in name, and a provision that allows the current Prevention of Crime Board to continue to function.

 

This entails an overhaul of the Prevention of Crime Board to change the qualifications of the chairperson, to create the post of a deputy chairperson, and expand its size, among others.

 

The amendments also insert a clause stating that no person shall be arrested or detained under PCA solely for his political beliefs or activities, which also appears in the Pota.

 

Another clause that is being amended excludes habeas corpus applications from intervening in decisions made by the Prevention of Crime Board.

A habeas corpus application is one to challenge a person’s detention beyond the initial 24 hours after arrest.  

Already, the PCA excludes several legal recourses against board’s decisions, and as a result, the judiciary can only scrutinise procedural matters of the law.

 

Like Pota and similar to the now-abolished Internal Security Act (ISA), discretionary matters such as whether to detain a person and the length of the detention are beyond the court’s scrutiny.

 

Other similarities between Pota and PCA if both bills are passed are include a remand period for suspects for up to 59 days, after which a person’s movements may be monitored through electronic monitoring devices for another 59 days.

 

If either board decides that a person is a possible threat but deemed it unnecessary to detain him, both PCA and Pota contain provisions that empower them to impose restrictions on the person’s movements and communications.

 

Terrorism only

 

While the two laws are similar, the explanatory statement of the PCA amendment bill states that the PCA is meant to cover act of terrorism other than those covered under Pota.

 

“In this regard, Pota will specifically deal with the prevention of the commission or support of terrorist acts involving listed terrorist organisations, as defined in that act, in a foreign country or any part of a foreign country and the control of persons engaged in such acts,” it said.

 

As of November last year, Malaysia officially recognises 18 groups and a number of individuals as terrorists.

 

Such groups include the Iraq and Syria-based Islamic State and the Philippines-based Abu Sayyaf Group.