The injustice of SOSMA
SOSMA reverses the premise that a person is innocent until proven guilty
Can the police be trusted to use SOSMA?
The detention of a number of 58 Global Ikhwan Services and Business Holdings (GISBH) officers and other personnel under the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (SOSMA) has revitalised criticism of the law by two opposition MPs Takiyuddin Hassan and Hassan Karim. Takiyuddin said SOSMA was intended for detaining suspected terrorists, where Section 2 specifies SOSMA is for security matters). This now infers GISBH was involved in organised crime.
Takiyuddin elaborated that Pakatan Harapan, while in opposition fought “tooth and nail against SOSMA”. Hasan said SOSMA undermines the government’s reform agenda, where “individuals should be held accountable based upon the actual crimes they have committed”.
SOSMA has been controversial since it replaced the Internal Security Act in 2012. SOSMA allows the police to detain individuals for up to 28 days, where they can be investigated, where the detainee loses any legal rights.
SOSMA reverses the premise that a person is innocent until proven guilty. Under SOSMA, a person can be held in detention for 28 days without any judicial orders and is forbidden to see a lawyer. Stories about the conditions detainees are held under and their treatment, amounts to psychological torture to weaken a person’s resolve and thus make it much more likely they may break down and confess to any crimes put in front of them.
The police, while someone is detained has the ability to go on a ‘fishing expedition’ to find any crime they may have committed. This mostly amounts to the police putting portions of the criminal act around the facts they have derived from any detainee whilst in detention.
There have been cases where SOSMA has been abused to detain political activists. Former Bersih 2.0 chair Maria Chin Abdullah was detained in 2016, along with 5 other prominent civil rights activists for receiving funds from foreign organizations, which is not illegal in Malaysia. This led to international condemnation.
Two DAP assemblymen and 12 others were arrested under SOSMA in 2019, for alleged support of a defunct organization. Its just too much of a stretch to say this was not political.
Since coming to power again in November 2022, the Pakatan Harapan led government has maintained SOSMA, and is not planning to repeal it anytime soon. According to the home minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail in March 2023, 647 people were arrested under SOSMA in 2022/23.
The major problem with SOSMA is that it hinders any presumption of innocence and therefore is prejudicial to any chance of a fair trial for defendants. Under SOSMA, its likely many charged have been as a result of ‘fishing expeditions’ and constructed charges by police to ensure conviction.
This erodes the rights of anyone subject to SOSMA. SOSMA should not be allowed to become the political tool the ISA was.
Subscribe Below:
Thee are a number of offences where the onus of guilt or innocence is reversed and placed upon the defendant. Largely these are for traffic offences. Possession of drugs too. There are many more including possession of stolen Goods. It occurs all over the world.