Dewan Rakyat passes draconian amendments to the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases (Amendment) Bill 2024

Some of the WHO IHRs have come to Malaysia through the parliament

On October 14, the Dewan Rakyat passed the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases (Amendment) Bill 2024, despite criticisms of harsh punishments handed out during the MCOs during the Covid era. The bill passed by a calling of voices, provides the Director-General of the Ministry of Health wide draconian powers.

Under the bill, the MOH DG is granted broad powers, without resorting to the parliament, to issue directives for controlling infectious diseases, including lockdowns and isolation. This also includes the issuing of vaccines and other forms of prevention and treatment. Non compliance by the public is an immediate criminal offence.  

Section 14 (a) gives the power to any authorised officer to order any person who is infected, or who is by reason, believed to have been infected with an infectious disease to undergo isolation or surveillance in a specified place for a period of time under the officers’ discretion, until they are deemed no longer of danger to the public.

Section 15 (a) allows an authorised officer to issue any order, compelling a person to wear any form of tracking device they deem necessary. Section 21 (b) empowers any authorised officer to carry out investigation under this law in accordance with the Criminal Procedure Code [Act 593], while Section 21C empowers any authorised officer to require any person to furnish any information relating to the prevention and control of infectious diseases.

The chair of the parliamentary Health Committee Suhaizan Kayat, said during the committee sessions that the punishments under section 31 (3) of the bill for those deemed to have breached any regulations under the Act are too burdensome. The bill provides for a maximum fine of RM8,000, imprisonment for up to two years, or both for any individual who contravenes the Act. Corporations found in breach of the Act could be fined up to RM 50,000, maximum two years jail, or both.

This Act makes the emergency ordinances used during the Covid era law. There have been numerous criticisms about the harshness of these emergency regulations.

The amendments passed are in line with the recent International Health Regulation (IHR) recently agreed to by the World Health Organization (WHO). Ironically, health minister Dzulkefly Ahmad and communication minister Fadzil Fahmi were against such amendments when they came to parliament in 2021, leading to the bill being shelved. Lim Guan Eng, the former DAP secretary-general also opposed the bill back in 2022.

The former prime minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob backed down in 2022, but the current government has pushed this through the parliament, without any fanfare. Neither the minister for health or the prime minister gave any reasons publicly on the necessity for such amendments.

As was seen during the MCOs, there was a breach of power by enforcement officers, where regulations were misused. This new bill increases the risk of this occurring once again.

While the Malaysian Public Health Physicians’ Association supports the bill, the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM) strongly opposed the bill back in 2022, on the grounds of the potential economic disruption that would occur.  

Malaysia is quickly becoming the totalitarian state that many fear.

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