The Security Laws should be retained. Why?

Introduction

The calls to abolish the security laws like the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (Sosma), the Prevention of Crime Act (Poca) and Prevention of Terrorism Act (Pota) by the NGOs and human right organizations in Malaysia become a matter of concern for the current Pakatan Harapan government.

Under the Part 2 of the Federal Constitution, the Malaysians do enjoy the fundamental liberties like liberty of the person, protection against retrospective criminal laws and repeated trials, equality and freedom of speech, assembly and association.

The question is whether these liberties can be used to undermine the peace and security of this nation or not?

I am strong believer of the rule of law. The law must protect the people. According to the World Justice Project's definition of the rule of law is encompassed with accountability, just laws, open government and accessible and impartial dispute resolution.

But for the hate preachers, terrorists and sympathizers, the rule of law is irrelevant to them. They are in a different belief system which utterly shelved the core aspect of universal human rights requirements. 

In contrast, these people are relying on fundamental rights which are enshrined as in our Federal Constitution and United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights to defend their rights and also to seek protection.

I couldn’t understand their justification where they are contradicting with their own belief system by relying on the rule of law to defend their action which against the interest of this nation.

This is a subtle situation.

What the present government should do then?

To shield these perpetrators whose intention is to destroy the nation or to protect the people and the nation as in whole.

The current security dilemma counter by Malaysia is very much similar with the situation in United Kingdom now. Before the London bombing in 2005, the UK security forces through their network of intelligence received some information regarding with terrorist threats but failed to take the warning seriously. The perception is changed utterly after the bombings in London. Later the investigation reports have indicated that the terrorists who are involved with such attacks have been indoctrinated the ideology of Salafism by the hate preachers.  These hate preachers who are wanted by Jordan and Egypt were given political asylum by UK and later they become the ideological masters for the present and future home grown terrorists in UK.

United Kingdom

The contemporary paradigm of global terrorist attacks is well linked with the hate preachers. The recent London and Manchester attacks are connected with the hate preachers in UK. The role of the hate preachers is to instigate their supporters and followers especially the young people and the converts to get involved with terrorist related activities. Generally, these hate preachers disguised themselves as the innocent or genuine preachers but their motives will be unknown to their acquaintances. These preachers will filter and choose the listeners or followers by picking up the people who have committed a lot of ‘sins’. They will not always have involved with attacks directly but rather as the inspirational figures to motivate and urge terrorists to commit the act.

The current UK security debacle is started many years ago. The influx of foreign radical hate preachers who are allowed to stay and continue their ‘noble’ activities in UK is the primary cause of the current problem. The people who sanctioned these hate preachers to be in UK probably never anticipated such atrocities which took placed in London or in Manchester. Most of them are policymakers who have no knowledge on security matters. In addition, they decide such delicate matters on the basis of human rights which is wrong approach to take on. These radical hate preachers like termites. They can destroy a nation with help of people within.

Omar Bakri Muhammad and Mustafa Kamel Mustafa also known as Abu Hamza had been convicted for radicalizing British born young Muslims and the new converts. Further they also play a crucial role to groom another local radical hate preacher, Anjem Choudary who is a former solicitor to continue their cause to radicalize Muslims in UK. Further, with the help of Omar, Anjem founded al-Muhajiroun.  This organization was banned under the UK Terrorism Act 2000 because of its terrorist related activities.  The Woolwich attacker, Michael Adebolajo and Khuram Butt, the London Bridge terrorist are associated with al-Muhajiroun. 

All the current attacks that happened in UK directly or indirectly are connected to these people. Therefore, another such attacks are imminent in UK. These radical hate preachers probably have created sleeper cells throughout UK and future attacks can happen anywhere and anytime.

Even though in past the UK security forces arrested and prosecuted successfully these terrorists but the attacks still occurred because of the influence of people like Omar, Abu Hamza and Anjem in UK. Therefore, the intelligence and security forces in UK need to play a proactive role by comprising all the stakeholders of Muslim community of UK. The cooperation from this community is vital to counter this threat in UK and they should not have demonized this community with all means.

Malaysia

With explicitly Malaysia is not far from the UK’s security situation. The Malaysia security forces have captured the suspected terrorists of ISIS but in my opinion, the threat pose by the harden (Foreign Terrorist Fighters) FTFs will be more lethal compare to these ‘inexperienced’ terrorists. The influx of veteran FTFs from battlefields in Syria and Iraq to this region including Malaysia will be noxious because they are good in funding, planning or executing terrorist attacks.

Further the self-radicalized terrorists who are influence by the hate radical preachers in Malaysia can pose a security threat in near future similar to the current situation in UK. Even though this possibility is not so visible now but the potential is still there. Further the change of government can be used by these hate preachers to instigate the Muslims in Malaysia in the name of religion by creating hostile environment which is conducive for them to launch the terrorist attacks.

Therefore, the calls to repeal security legislation like SOSMA, POTA, POCA and other relevant laws by the human right organizations in Malaysia need to be considered by the current government with great attention by looking into the consequences of it. Perhaps within these legislations there are possibilities for the executive or security forces to abuse the power but these abuses can be remedied with a mechanism of check and balance supervises by the Parliament itself or to establish a Commission under the supervision of the Malaysian Parliament.

In my view, these legislations are the key factor to manage the terrorist threats in Malaysia apart from the de-radicalization programme which is well appreciated by other security agencies in the world. It’s important to have key tools like legislations which gives authority to the security forces to monitor and detain suspected terrorists and sympathizers among them are the instigators and hate preachers to prevent any attacks in Malaysia. The collaboration between intelligence agencies in Malaysia and in other jurisdictions is essential to detect the influx of FTFs and hate preachers. They need to be stopped by all means to prevent the future attacks and also to deter their influence on locals which otherwise will disharmonized this nation.

Conclusion

In a nutshell, the hate preachers are the source of inspiration to the terrorists globally because they are charismatic. They also have the capability to influence, manipulate and instigate the potential terrorists to launch the attacks by using false interpretations of the religion verses for their own benefit.

Therefore, the security and intelligence agencies have a huge task ahead. They need to work relentlessly to counter any terrorist attacks in Malaysia. Further they have to identify, monitor and deter these hate preachers to deter them not to gain any stimulus and throttlehold within the Malaysian society. 

The essential powers which are provided by the security legislations like SOSMA, POTA and POCA are decisive for forces to operate without fear and favour. These agencies cannot and should not allow or tolerate anyone who pose a threat to our national security. Therefore, these laws are so important to safeguard the sovereignty of this nation.

If any attacks happen in future, the intelligence and security agencies will be blamed first by the people including those who are defending these hate preachers. These agencies must stand shoulder to shoulder to resist and defeat the potential terrorists who are inspired with the ideology of these hate preachers whose aim is to dismantle our beloved nation.

In addition, the present government in their election manifesto had promised to abolish these security laws but that can be ignored by closing the loopholes which allow these laws to be manipulated. Further the laws should be amended to give necessary protection to the detainees.

Further the judges who are presiding these type cases must be given a freehand to determine welfare of these detainees without any interference or influences.

Moreover, an independent body need to be established comprised of former judges, human rights lawyers, human rights campaigners, lay persons, former intelligence and security personnel to evaluate the conditions of these detainees. Based on the report prepared by this body, the families of these detainees and public will know the actual conditions of the detainees. Further, the presiding judge can use this report as an additional information whether the detainees have been treated properly or not by the security agencies.

Malaysia is a new era. In this era, Malaysians should not experience any suppression and oppression from anyone or any agencies. That will be not tolerated.  But, peace and security of this nation is paramount.

Therefore, the current government should outweigh the need to maintain peace and security of this nation against human right issues on potential terrorists and hate preachers. For instance, in United Kingdom and in other European countries many security legislation have enacted recently and people are willing to sacrifice their liberty with limitation. They realized the importance of these laws to protect their freedom.  

I am urging the present government not to abolished these security laws but rather make some improvements by consulting the relevant stakeholders. In my view law is not perfect but the people who are entrusted to guard these laws need to be transparent, accountable and must have a high integrity by not abusing the position and power.

Kuala Lumpur.