Law to handle terrorism cases: Junaidi
Published on: Friday, October 24, 2014
KOTA KINABALU: The Government would come up with a law to handle terrorism cases especially since the problem has become a global issue.Deputy Home Minister Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said the current laws such as Prevention of Crime Act (Poca) and Security Offences (Special Measures) Act (Sosma) are insufficient to handle cases in relation to militants and fanaticism."When Poca was first approved, we promised that this law would only be used against gangsters and secret societies. But when terrorism emerged, it seems that we would need a new law.
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"The question is, should we legislate a new Act or should we amend the existing Acts? Additionally, how much time do we have to bring this to the Parliament before December?"Because the process to legislate a new law is long. We need to engage our stakeholders, political parties, assemblymen, NGOs and listen to their views on how we can handle terrorism," he said.The advantage of merely amending existing laws, he said, would fast track the process and let the Government have a better grip on the situation.
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However, making a new law would mean a more comprehensive law which would cover everything that had been discussed and address all the concerns of the stakeholders."For now, we have yet to make a concrete decision about this," he said.
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Regarding the recent bombing case in Kuala Lumpur, Junaidi said the case had something to do with the abolishment of the Internal Security Act (ISA) in 2010 where close to 2,000 leaders and members of secret societies were released.Under the ISA, he said, the police could arrest these people even without enough evidence as long as they were sure these people were involved in gang-related crimes.Nowadays, Junaidi added, under Poca, the same group of people is feeling the heat and the bombing incident was a message they wanted to send to the police in order to demoralise them."However, we should not take the bait. We have been trained to carry out our responsibilities to the nation, to maintain security and public order. We would continue to do our jobs because we do not want to catch the small fish. We want the 'tekong'."Therefore, we have asked our intelligence to find out the puppet masters. Sometimes, they wear ties, coats, nicely dressed but actually they are the real boss," he said.Junaidi stressed that the police have identified several people who are still actively leading their secret societies but could not act until enough evidence have been gathered.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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