Malaysian govt's move to renew a key security provision defeated in Parliament

KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia's Parliament on Wednesday (March 23) voted down a motion to extend by another five years a key provision under the Sosma security Act allowing the police to detain suspects for up to 28 days without trial.

The motion to extend subsection 4(5) of Sosma was defeated after it was put to a bloc vote.

Only 84 MPs were in favour, while 86 voted against it, and 50 were absent. Three MPs were disqualified from voting for entering the hall late.

This was the first time that a Malaysian government lost a simple majority vote in the Lower House.

The Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012, widely known as Sosma, replaced the Internal Security Act.

"For the motion tabled by the Home Minister, those who were in favour 84, those not in favour 86, not present 50," Parliament Speaker Azhar Azizan Harun told the floor on Wednesday.

"The motion that was tabled earlier is not passed," he said.

The failure to extend the provision means that it will no longer be in force once it lapses on July 31, 2022.

Following the defeat, Deputy Law Minister Mas Ermieyati Samsudin moved a motion for proceedings to be adjourned and for the scheduled Bills to be tabled and debated on Thursday. This prompted shouts of protest from opposition MPs.

Umno top leadership has been pushing for snap polls after the Umno-led Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition scored major electoral wins at the Melaka and Johor state elections consecutively over the past four months.

In its four-day annual assembly last week, Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had called on the party to endorse a push to hold snap polls in Malaysia, saying that his call for the early national vote reflects the sentiments of Umno grassroots and that these should be heeded.

However, the call is resisted by Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob, who said that the dissolution of Parliament, a step necessary before elections are called, was under the King's purview.

A main plank of Datuk Seri Ismail's resistance to snap polls is that he will likely lose his job as prime minister should Umno-led BN win power again.

Members of his faction would likely all lose their Cabinet posts too.

Earlier on Wednesday, Home Minister Hamzah Zainudin said the provision should be extended to give sufficient time to the police to complete the investigation of security offence cases which are complex.

He added that the investigation of cases involving security offenses, especially terrorism and organised crime, is complex and takes time to complete, to obtain evidence from detainees during the collection of relevant evidence for prosecution purposes, including tracking down accomplices who are still at large.

"Those who do not agree with Sosma 2012 nor support the motion to extend sub-section 4(5) are groups who want to make room for criminals and terrorists to dominate the country," he said when tabling the motion.

This will be the second time an extension of the 28-day detention provision is being sought since the Act came into force on July 31, 2012, with the first five-year extension approved in 2017.