By Peter Sibon
KUCHING, Oct 14: The government should maintain a consistent and proper policy in accordance with International Law in dealing with terrorism and terrorism-related activities in Malaysia as security of this country is of paramount importance.
Emphasising this, Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr James Jemut Masing said the government should deal with whoever linked to terrorist groups regardless of their political affiliation.
“Those who commit terrorist acts does not confine only to race, religion, political affiliation or colour of their skin. They kill whenever it serves their purposes. Therefore, laws or authorities must be totally blinded to all aspects of terrorist acts. Political affiliation doesn’t immune them from being persecuted by the laws of this country,” he told the DayakDaily today.
“Malaysian government, must, without hesitation, put the force of laws to those lawmakers who are suspected of link to Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) or other terror organisations. Selective persecution against these suspects is not acceptable,” he said.
Likewise, senior lawyer Shankar Ram pointed out that the Malaysian police has correctly invoked Security Offences (Special Measures) (SOSMA) 2012 in dealing with those directly and or indirectly connected with terrorism and such related activities as the said law applies to terrorism, terrorist and related activities.
“Prior to 14th General Election (GE14), Pakatan Harapan (PH) and (Prime Minister) Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad promised to repeal all oppressive and/or subversive laws, among other, SOSMA 2012 but have not done so. They sat on it for so long,” he said.
“SOSMA 2012 should be invoked for people like Zakir Naik (controversial Muslim preacher) and this is so, especially when the Indian government has made a stand on Zakir,” he added.
Shankar shared that at a recent forum, he had asked the Attorney-General Tan Sri Tommy Thomas why should Malaysia be concerned about The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) and how does it affect Malaysia in the international front when the country has subversive laws which the government promised to repeal but failed to do so.
“The laws that are not repealed will remain as laws until challenged on its constitutionality. I have done so in one particular case and the matter is on appeal to the Court of Appeal,” he explained.
“(As such), it is entirely wrong in law and principal for any one party to seek exemption or be exempted from SOSMA 2012,” he added.
Shankar stressed that everyone is equal before the law and the police must act fairly and objectively without interference from the politicians.
Both Masing and Shankar were commenting on the latest government crackdown on individuals and some DAP leaders who have been detained under SOSMA 2012 for their alleged involvement to revive defunct LTTE, the Sri Lankan rebel group which fought a civil war against Colombo for a separate Tamil homeland from 1976-2009.
It has been reported that so far 12 individuals have been arrested since last week as police launched a crackdown on supporters of LTTE, who were accused of trying to revive the group.— DayakDaily
