Denied the right to protest by peaceful assembly before Parliament(Dewan Rakyat) passed the law allowing Detention Without Trial

Detention Without Trial(DWT) is coming back again when the Bill to amend the Preventive Crime Act(PCA) becomes law. [Malaysian government may have repealed the ISA and another law that allows for DWT but there still are laws that allow for DWT in Malaysia, and this amendment to the PCA will make it yet another law that allows for DWT]

The Bill was tabled on 25 September(Wednesday)  - it was only then that Malaysians had sight of the proposed amendments, including the amendment to allow Detention Without Trial, and also to disallow the detainee from thereafter challenging the reasons of his detention. One MP told me that he  got copies the Bill only on Thursday.

The Prevention of Crime (Amendment and Extension) 2013 Bill was passed on 2 October 2013,  when in fact it was passed minutes passed midnight on 3/10/2013.

In short, the time lapse between the date the contents of the Bill was revealed and the passing of the law is 6 to 7 days.

How could MPs even get back to the people they are representing, get their feedback on the Bill, in short do their work as people's representatives. I would say it was almost impossible...

Could Malaysians come out and express their disagreement through a peaceful assembly? No, they cannot because now Malaysian law states that no right to peaceful assembly until the lapse of the 10-days notification period. 

GOOD NEWS - It is still not law until Senate passes it, and our King approves it.

Watching the parliamentary session online, it was most disappointing that the Minister and the Barisan Nasional MPs acted not like 'peoples' representatives', not like leaders who listen and consider objections and points of views but rather just 'dismissed' all arguments or rather never even took time to reply to the arguments made. The word 'bulldozed' through may be a good word to describe how the Bill was passed.

MPs need to behave like thinking caring human persons, and make up their own mind freely - we need to reform our Parliament, and return to MPs the freedom to vote as personal conscience and belief dictates... and votes should be counted. If not, the importance of MPs diminish, and that may be the reason why many people just do not bother with MPs safe for the purpose of getting some financial assistance or support for some application for projects and rights. That is not what a MP should be ... they should be representatives of the people, and they should always exercise their freedom to express and vote as responsible peoples' reps concerned only for the good of the people, and the nation guided by principles of justice and human rights. The usage of the 'Whip' should be restricted to maybe just the Budget and financial bills.

DETENTION WITHOUT TRIAL - that means persons can be arrested and detained without being accorded the right to a fair trial, without the right to be able to defend themselves. 

Police and even prosecution believes that a person is guilty - but that is not enough, they must be able to prove to an independent JUDGE that a person is guilty and this is done by adducing evidence, facts not just 'feelings', and this evidence would be  witnesses and other physical evidence. They have to convince a Judge that the person is GUILTY beyond reasonable doubt...and if they manage to do that the courts will convict, and sentence the person accordingly.

But, that process it self is not sufficient because still, there is the possibility that the first Judge could have made mistakes, and for that we have the right to APPEALs... and in Malaysia that usually means 2 appeals. If it was a High Court case, you can appeal to the Court of Appeal, and if still not happy, you can appeal to the Federal Court...

Prosecution(including police) has charged so many people in criminal courts - and in so many cases, the courts have found them 'Not Guilty' and acquitted them. Sometime, the first court finds them guilty, but the appeal courts disagree and they are released...

So now, based on what police says a person is Detained Under Trial - this is so unfair and so dangerous, and many a innocent person will lose their liberty..

And worse still, the person detained wrongly under this Detention Without Trial cannot even go to court to say that the reasons for his detention is wrong or baseless...

Now, the Detention Order will be issued by the a Panel/Board - but there is no right for the detainee to be represented by a lawyer...Fact is, without a good lawyer, these detainees will not be able to even raise important points of fact and law for the Board to consider before issuing Detention Orders. It will be ONE-SIDED with only the police/prosecution having a significant advantage...

That is why all justice loving persons in Malaysia should not want any Detention Without Trial Laws in Malaysia. Everyone deserve a fair trial...and everyone is innocent until found guilty by the court..

Police, Media and government has been referring to all these people who will be Detained Without Trial as 'criminals' - No one is a criminal until he has been tried and convicted by a court of law... 

People arrested by police are mere suspects... likewise persons under Detention Without Trial are nothing more that suspects, and too people that our police suspect is involved in some crime...

Now, out of a 100 suspects maybe 1 would be guilty of a crime - we must look at data of the number of persons arrested by the police who never get charged let alone convicted by court. What is percentage of police suspects that are really guilty? 1%? 0.5%?

All Detention Without Trial laws, and laws that allow for the imposition of restrictions/conditions on the exercise of the liberty/movement/freedom of persons not being a sentence imposed by court after a fair trial must be REPEALED...

You may think that this law will not be used against you or your family, so you do not care. Well, many of the victims of these laws today (and tomorrow) also took that view until they fell victim. 

We must therefore act driven by a sense of justice to ensure that such unjust laws are all removed from Malaysian law...